TOHS alumna continues family tradition as trumpeter

Larissa Benedek Larissa Benedek of Thousand Oaks is carrying on a family tradition that goes back generations.

Following in the footsteps of her grandfathers, as well as an ancestor who played bugle for Napoleon, Benedek, 19, is a trumpet player. Playing the trumpet is in her blood.

Last month she marched to victory in the drum corps world championships as part of the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. Before an audience of 50,000the Cadets were one of 53 corps that competed at the home of the New England Patriots footbalteam in Foxboro, Mass. The group won first place, earning the title of Top Corps in the World. Made up of brass musicianspercussion and color guarddrum and bugle corps perform

intense, competitive, choreographed musical experiences staged on a football field. The typical corps is made up oabout 135 amateur performers under age 22. Their nineto 11minute production is judged on musical excellence, drama and color, all while marching precise, intricate patterns.

This is Benedek’s second year with the Cadets, who are based in Allentown, Pa. To become a member a musician must go through an audition process several months long. A threeweek spring training camp in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania precedes an intense summer tour that takes the group on competitive performances nationwide. Benedek estimates she traveled about 20,000 miles by bus this summer. The tour culminates in the world championships.

“This is like a dream,” Benedek said. “It’s the highest level you can get to in this activity.”

While a student at Thousand Oaks High School, Benedek was a member of the Lancer Band and Color Guard under director Marty Martone. She also performed twice in the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena as a member of the Pasadena City College Honor Band.

This summer she returned to Thousand Oaks High School to help Martone run band camp, the annual program that prepares the school band for the coming season.

“Mr. Martone is extremely supportive and encouraging,” Benedek said. “The staff is great about telling students about auditions.”

Benedek’s mother, Jan Osterhaven, credits the music education program in local schools with her daughter’s music success.

“Kids won’t follow through unless they have a support system. We tried to take her to lessons but they don’t listen to what parents try to tell them to do,” Osterhaven said. “The music education program in Thousand Oaks is just fantastic. We feel really grateful to be in Thousand Oaks.”

Benedek recalls beginning trumpet lessons in fourth grade at Aspen Elementary in Thousand Oaks with a teacher named Mrs. Warshaw.

“Trumpet always appealed to me. It seemed the most fun and only had three buttons so I thought it would be easy,” Benedek said. “Little did I know how much control would be required in breathing, tongue and lip positioning.”

“It’s fascinating that you can make such wonderful sounds with pieces of metal all wound up,” Benedek added.

Benedek attends Simmons College in Boston, the city where she was born. Although she moved away when she was very young, she grew up listening to her parents’ stories about the city where they met. Her mother was a student at Harvard and her father attended Northeastern.

“It sounded like a fascinating place,” Benedek said. “There are so many schools there. The architecture is amazing and every building has so much history.”

An arts administration major, Benedek is also studying management marketing and minoring in Spanish. Although not sure of what her career will be, Benedek enjoyed an internship she had with a group that promotes free youth arts activities. She’s interested in some kind of work involving kids, music and performance.

“Life is affected so much by arts and music,” Benedek said.

Benedek will leave next week to study in Budapest, Hungary for a semester and will participate in a five-hour-a-day language program.

Her parents are Hungarian and Benedek has long wanted to learn the language.

“My family speaks it. I’m the only one that doesn’t,” Benedek said.

When she returns in December, she’ll tour the East Coast with a brass ensemble for three weeks to promote drum corps to elementary, middle and high school students. After that she’ll head back to college in Boston.

“We want to show how marching to music and playing an instrument can be kind of cool,” Benedek said. “You don’t have to sit in an orchestra pit.”