Luca Loftus ’26 loved listening to that music, and eventually it came time for his own music journey, as he began to make his own melodies with the recorder at Country Lane Elementary.
Though he wasn’t particularly drawn to his first experiences with the recorder, his outlook on music changed when he heard the sweet sound of the trombone echoing through the auditorium at a performing arts fair. At that moment, Luca knew that the trombone was the instrument for him.
The trombone is different from other instruments in that it doesn’t have keys, valves, or frets that clearly demarcate different pitches. You have to “memorize” the pitches in your head; otherwise, you’ll be out of tune all the time. Additionally, Luca found that the trombone isn’t very competitive. Not many people play the instrument, and as a result he could just go at his own pace without exerting additional pressure on himself to always be in a state of worry or dissatisfaction.
Ever since he started playing the trombone in 4th grade, his biggest challenge was when he got braces. If you’ve ever seen a trombone played before, you’ll know that it involves putting a metal ring to your lips and then vibrating your lips, kind of making a buzzing sound with your lips and blowing a raspberry. Unfortunately, if you do that with sharp pieces of metal stuck inside your mouth, it cuts up your lips, making it extremely difficult and painful to play well. During that time, Luca played less often, but eventually adapted, finding a new technique that allowed him to keep growing.
Today, he plays in both the Mitty Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble, which have given him numerous opportunities to share his music with the student community. For example, the Jazz Band annually goes to “Christmas in the Park” in downtown San Jose and performs Christmas songs with a jazzy spin to them. They also go to Jazz festivals like the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival to both participate in competitions and hear other talented bands around California. Sometimes when Luca’s performing, he can see the audience react in a hopefully positive way: “it’s a nice feeling to see someone smile if I play a nice lick in a jazz solo, or a bit comical to see people flinch if I suddenly play really loudly.” It’s rewarding to see the impact of his music on others, and Luca can experience that from his numerous performances for his community.
In addition to improving his technical skills as a trombone player in Mitty’s musical groups like Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble, Luca has also gotten the chance to develop his leadership; he’s practiced not only leading sectionals and helping others improve as a section leader, but also some directing. As Luca works on developing his directing skills and explores leadership, he enjoys how it gives him a new avenue to contribute to the entire ensemble in addition to just fulfilling an individual role.
Looking back on his music journey, Luca can confirm that it’s really hard to start an instrument. In fact, he has experienced recent firsthand evidence of this, when he came across an acoustic guitar that he’s been trying to play. He recognizes that for anyone looking to start music, it’s every musician’s canon event that they may not sound good immediately, and that’s okay: “it’ll sound better in no time, and the real process is in the skills that you develop along the way.” He believes that to be a musician, you just have to keep being curious, first to start the instrument out of the blue, and then persistently practice it. As with all things, consistency and love for the process can make the impossible possible, and Luca’s mastery of the trombone is proof of that.
In the future, Luca plans to do a dual major program, so he can study trombone performance and environmental science at a school like University of Rochester or University of Southern California.