Through listening, a brass ensemble finds its sound

For many, brass instruments evoke bright, brilliant, piercing sounds. But for tubist Mikal Martin ’27MM, brass isn’t defined by what you put out, but what you take in. 

“We’re just listening — constantly,” he says. 

Martin is a founding member of New Horizon Brass, a new ensemble — equal part chamber music and business venture — comprised of YSM students. Though the brass quintet only came together within the last nine months, the group has already carved out a presence on campus and beyond. Their momentum comes from a mix of vision, talent, and the School’s infrastructure for supporting student artistic development — an ecosystem designed to help ideas like theirs take root quickly and with purpose. 

“There’s something really special about getting a brass quintet together,” Martin says. “Everyone is so talented, but also peculiar and specific. It’s an opportunity to experiment to the fullest — to see how deep we can take this as musicians.” 

Before the academic year began, Martin and his fellow members — trumpeters JM Taylor ’27MMA and Jacob Rose ’25MM ’26MMA, hornist Aidan Lewis ’27MM, and trombonist Will Roberts ’26MM — arrived on campus with a vision and found the support to sharpen it. Conversations with Albert Lee, YSM's Associate Dean for Student Life and Community Engagement, Adriana Zabala, Assistant Dean of Collaborative Arts, and Frances Pollock, Director of Yale's Cultural Innovation Lab, helped give their ambitions concrete shape —connecting them to accelerator programming at Tsai City and ongoing coaching through Lee’s office. 

Those early meetings helped the group move from idea to action. 

“We talked about what we want to do: compete, perform at the highest level, and create community. And they helped us articulate a plan and to understand what opportunities are out there for us as a new chamber group,” says Martin.   

“At YSM, we serve as a launchpad for artists through cross-campus partnerships and community collaborations,” says Zabala. “So we considered the many ways that New Horizon Brass would resonate beyond our conservatory setting and helped connect them to partners who could meaningfully amplify their reach.”   

One of the ensemble’s defining moments came early in the school year, when they took part in a master class hosted by Time for Three. The experience proved transformative, reshaping the way they approached their playing. 

At that time, the group was still new, still learning each other’s quirks and preferences. The feedback they received reflected that: they needed to connect more deeply. As a remedy, they tried a new exercise, turning their chairs and facing away from each other while playing. 

And something clicked. 

Without visual cues, they had to rely on something else — intuit each other’s timing, phrasing, intention. The ensemble tightened and their sound unified. The technique stuck, and the group now incorporates it into almost every rehearsal.   

“In a chamber group, it’s not about having one person lead the breath,” says Martin. “It’s about everyone simultaneously feeling that this is where the breath should be.” 

That sense of connection has carried New Horizon Brass into an increasingly full performance schedule. Over the past several months, they have performed at the Yale Black Solidarity Conference; advanced to the finals of the Music Teachers National Association competition; appeared in the School’s Lunchtime Chamber Music series; and made multiple visits to Norfolk — working with students from elementary through high school and, more recently, performing at a local library.   

In addition to their many performances, the quintet has been hard at work preparing for competitions — finding time in a schedule already packed with classes, recitals, and Philharmonia concerts to record repertoire. They have taken advantage of all available resources on campus, from hosting rehearsals in the Orchestra Rehearsal Room to using the Center for Studies in Music Technology (CSMT) to capture and review their sound. 

The quintet’s trajectory shows no signs of slowing. This summer, they will participate in Time for Three’s Honeywell Arts Academy, a fully funded summer festival where they’ll spend two weeks deepening the creative relationship that began in that early master class. They’ll also spend time at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale, a six-week residency working alongside professional musicians — a natural extension of the community they’ve already begun to build there through their school visits and library performance. 

Beyond performances and competitions, New Horizon Brass has come to represent something greater for Martin. He calls it “a safe haven,” allowing him to shed the constraints of the everyday and instead embrace bold and joyful music making, flaws and all. 

“A brass quintet is a unique entity because we are naturally imperfect instruments,” Martin explains. “There’s never going to be a time when you won’t hear brass instruments crack. It’s a very natural thing because we’re using the natural systems of our body — and we, as people, are imperfect.”