Student Spotlight: Lucy Trapp: Euphonium

There is nothing quite like spending time in nature: facing the cruel beauty of the mountains, hiking miles and miles, disconnected from the rest of the world. Lucy Trapp was able to get this very experience in the New England Literature program.  

"I spent six weeks reading and writing without access to technology," Trapp said. "It was incredibly rigorous and very worthwhile. I've been writing letters to my family and friends to keep in contact. I initially heard about it from another euphonium friend who went last year. It sounded really interesting. It was a part of the initiative in the 70s of going out into the wild to learn. Most of the other programs like it were phased out in the 90s, but Michigan's program is still running." 

The program consists of 40 University of Michigan students and 13 instructors and yields nine English credits.

"I was a girl scout my whole life and loved the outdoors and needed English credits," Trapp said. "The instruction is all student-led. There is an emphasis on transcendentalist New England literature, like Emmerson and Thoreau, as well as a lot of student-led electives. I got to do a songwriting class and make music. It was a whole new way of learning."

This past summer was the 49th year the program has run. Each session is 45 days. 

"My favorite thing to do was mountain climbing," Trapp said. "We climbed Mount Washington. We had a pretty perilous journey. Mount Washington is known for having the worst weather. There were harrowing moments at 500+ feet. We had to make some decisions about how we were going to go on. Experiences like that give you respect for the land and how it controls whether or not you summit and when you can get back."

The experience offered students time to reflect and reconnect.

"After this experience, I noticed how much people use their phones as a way of disconnecting," Trapp said. "It is a way of being here without having to talk to others and that's really sad. I got to give the gift of my speech to the people who were there with me. I learned that I like being in nature and that I like to sit on the ground and I need to prioritize being outside. Throughout the program, we recorded all of our work in a journal. And we hiked about seven mountains. I have fallen in love with mountain climbing. I've never been more ready for entries."

While mountain climbing was difficult, Trapp was proud of all she overcame not only on the rough terrain of Mount Washington, but throughout her first year navigating college. 

"Finding friends was really difficult," Trapp said. "I'm the only freshman euphonium from my class. There were two other new euphs that were seniors. Being the only one in the section who lived in a dorm, the only one who could go to the dining hall, it was difficult to find friends. I'm proud of taking my not stellar experience in marching band and turning it around. I didn't make any games. It was sad and I kinda hated it and wanted to quit. On a whim I decided to join hockey band and TBS and made friends and now I am in a much better place." 

Trapp also had to navigate learning a new instrument. 

"I didn't start playing euphonium until last summer (2022)," Trapp said. "I'm a trumpet player, so I can read treble clef, and my dad had euphonium. I auditioned on euph and trumpet and was placed on euph. I had to really focus on learning the instrument and bass clef because not all the parts had treble clef versions. I came in knowing about ten bass clef notes. It was difficult. It was a hit to the ego when I realized I would be floundering around during band week. I did well in my chair placement so that was a nice confidence boost. It was definitely a challenge, but with a lot of hard work it was alright. I fooled Dr. Pasquale apparently; he didn't know I wasn't originally a euph player until we traveled to Allentown for hockey band and I told him. I'm kinda flattered."

Trapp has used her experiences to start a new project in Tau Beta Sigma, an honorary music service sorority.

"We are working on revamping the music; making parts legible and writing treble clef parts for euphonium," Trapp said. "We just want to make music more inclusive and encourage more trumpet players to come and play treble clef euph. We're the smallest section in the band, 18 people, and we are incredibly close."

Tau Beta Sigma was a space for Trapp to act on her love of service, and also a connection point to her mother, an MMB and TBS alumna.

"My mom marched trombone in the MMB," Trapp said. "My whole life I got to hear about bowl trips, the crazy things they got up to, the privileges, the games. She got to go to the Rose Bowl twice. She talked about the five mile parade and how strenuous it is. As I was growing up, all my mom's friends who came over to visit were from band. They were still good friends after all these years. My mom was also in TBS. She was the president her senior year. She came to my third degree. I threw it out as a joke, but she said she could and ended up going; Lindsay tested her with the handshake when she came in the doors. TBS was smaller back then, so she got to see how the chapter grew. I'm sisters with my mother." 

Lucy Trapp and her mother are able to share many experiences, including the process of learning a new instrument. Her mother was originally a flute player who auditioned on both piccolo and trombone, and just like her daughter, she received a spot on the instrument that she had only been playing for a few weeks. 

"It stemmed out of a want to be in the band," Trapp said. "It made us both very thankful for being able to have an experience that was so different from anything we could ever have, and friendships that lasted so long. She was a Shepherd Scholar. The first time I walked into Revelli, I saw the Shepherd Scholar's plaque and I saw my mom's name right there. She always talked about how we do things so much more fancy. I told her I got my summer uniform. She said 'We didn't do that when I was in band.'" 

Trapp and her mother were able to share many moments this season, including marching together on the field during the homecoming show, and navigating male-dominated sections.

"It was wonderful," Trapp said. "It was so strange. On the field, you mostly only see the other people you are marching around. To have my mom there, on the field in the Big House with our instruments was very shocking even though I knew it was coming. She was also a female in the low brass, one of the only ones. She talked about how the boys looked over her a lot. In male dominated sections, like trombone, sometimes she had to work harder to get entries down and to be able to carry big brass instruments around. She was so much shorter than the guys around her. The guys were very protective of her as she got older. She became rank leader by her senior year. She enjoyed being in band, but most of her female friends were sticks and girls in TBS, and not from the trombone section."

TBS was a hinge point for both Trapp women, allowing them to form closer relationships within the band and engage in service projects.

"I have always been really drawn to service," Trapp said. "In high school, I spent a lot of time teaching trumpet and doing events, looking for ways to meet other people. I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to do TBS. The smaller organization size is really nice for getting to meet new people. I wouldn't have met LaNaysha, another girl in low brass. My favorite event was volunteering with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It was full of wonder and awe. We ran a booth for play testing instruments. The kids were so excited to be doing something on their own. They especially loved hitting the drum."

Trapp will be pursuing a degree in Biology, Health and Society on a pre-med track.