Madison Turrentine is known as the best trumpet player in the school, and she continues to be the best after advancing in the top three finalists in the National Trumpet Competition.

Seventh grader Madison will compete in the final round of the 2021 National Trumpet Competition May 22, 2021 at the University of North Carolina at  Greensboro. She qualified as one of the three finalists after advancing out of The John G. Grubbs Memorial Junior Division.

“The National Trumpet Competition is a competition across the United States,” Band Director Jason Turrentine said. “It’s split into five or seven categories.”

Madison received the news that she made the top three finalists of the competition while she and her mom were sitting at the McDonald’s parking lot.

“I was with my mom, my aunt, and my dog was in my lap,” Madison said, “and I started screaming, even before they finished announcing my name, and my dog looked scared.”

Madison said although she was surprised, she knows that it was the practice on the selection, Aria Con Variazioni, composed by George Frideric Handel, and the amount of work she put in that led to this moment . She said that she arrives at school early and goes to the band hall to warm up everyday before class starts.

“It usually consists of lip slurs and slurs studies,” Madison said. “I do like five of those. I do three more lip slurs, and then I do the chromatic scale. It’s supposed to help with your range.”

Madison dreams of being a professional trumpet player and ends up playing for the president, but there are struggles she faces.

“If I had a goal,” Madison said, “I don’t think it would end up happening, especially around here. There is a bunch of stigma around band, especially in my grade. There’s all these people who are like ‘Oh, band is for nerds,’ but I’ve accomplished more than them, and they made fun of me for it.”

Madison plans to continue working on her music in an effort to earn a Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree from a college close to home.

“I would probably go to a college around here,” Madison said, “just for a Bachelor’s or Master’s in music education, then I would get my [Doctorate] and maybe a Performance degree at Juilliard.”