Blessing Trumpets – Moving Ahead 2011

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New Blessing BTR1580 shows the influence of Fred Powell and Steve Rorie to out play today’s Bach Stradivarius trumpets Since the Bach strike which saw a lot of experienced Bach craftsmen leave Bach, many of us think the quality of today’s Bach Stradivarius trumpets are not as good as the pre-strike models. Meanwhile this year’s Blessing trumpets are the best we have seen from Blessing in a long time and they are a much better trumpet since the Powell take over. I think the Model BTR1266 trumpet is this year’s best buy for a quality student-level trumpet that will help the student progress at a rapid rate, and at only $630 for one in brass-lacquered, it is very affordable.

Elkhart, Indiana June 2010 -Mr. J. Fred Powell officially joined the E.K. Blessing team as the Director of Artistic Development. Mr. Powell has over 20 years of experience in brass instrument performance, customization, design, manufacturing and promotion. He began a repair apprenticeship during the mid 1980′s as a sideline to performing and has since gone on to hold music industry positions in product management, instrument design, marketing, and sales management. Most recently, Powell was the owner of TrumpeTech, Inc. with locations in Downers Grove, Illinois and Elkhart, Indiana, where he produced his proprietary line, J.F. Powell Signature Trumpets. As Director of Artistic Development, Powell will now be based in our new Elkhart, Indiana facility overseeing the design, production and quality of all Blessing brass instruments. He will also serve as the primary brass artist liaison and work with our artists who visit the shop.

Powell earned undergraduate and masters degrees in trumpet performance from Bob Jones University and The Florida State University, respectively. Having performed in the past with the Florida Symphony, Brevard Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony and others, he remains an active freelance musician in the Chicago area, also performing occasionally with the South Bend Symphony, Northshore Concert Band, Quintessence Brass and others. Still a full-time member of the Artisans in Brass, he has also toured with the Boston Brass, Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, Sweeney Todd, and has been a featured soloist with both the Orlando Concert Band and the Elkhart Municipal Band on their sister-city tour of England. A co-founder of the National Trumpet Competition, Powell now serves as Associate Director of the organization and also on the Executive Board. Having been a clinician at numerous trumpet festivals, university programs and music education events, as well as a frequent soloist with various middle schools, high school, collegiate and municipal bands, he will now be available to serve in these same roles on behalf of the new E.K. Blessing.

Source: Christina Guiliano-Cobas, Marketing Manager, Verne Q. Powell Flutes, Inc./E.K. Blessing

Blessing has been making quality trumpets for over 100 years. However, in 2010 Steve Wasser, President of Powell Flutes bought E.K. Blessing Company, moved them to new larger manufacturing building, reorganized the company under Steve Rorie, Vice President and General Manager of Blessing and started to improve the quality of all Blessing trumpets. In addition, they introduced a new professional trumpet the BTR1580 that ranked as Blessing’s highest achievement thus far in the world of professional brass performance.

As other manufacturers like Bach outsourced their student trumpets overseas, Blessing remained the only maker of bress insturments producing their entire product line and parts in Elkhart, Indiana. The result has been a higher quality of student, intermediate, and professional level trumpets and other brass insturments from Blessing in 2011.