Meet the trumpet wizard: How Interlochen Arts Academy instructor Ken Larson went from playing instruments to making them
Ken Larson has always loved tinkering. Now, he’s building custom trumpets and teaching Interlochen Arts Academy students how to do the same.
When you first meet Ken Larson, it’s easy to assume he’s a typical trumpet instructor. His professional biography describes years of orchestral experience, plenty of big band performances, and teaching stints at several colleges. But Larson has a secret: he’s also a wizard. A trumpet-making wizard, that is.
In his workshop deep in the basement of Interlochen’s Music Center, Larson plys his magic with heat, acid, hammers, and brass. He builds custom trumpets as a hobby-turned-business he now teaches to Interlochen Arts Academy students. It’s a passion he’s pursued for over three decades.
Ken Larson opens up a tray of metal beads used for smoothing out dents inside trumpets and other brass instruments.
A gearhead finds his passion
“I'm not a natural musician,” Larson confesses. “I'm a natural gearhead who happens to love music.”
His fascination with metal, motors, and tinkering began at a very young age.
“The Larson side of my family is all machinists, boat racers, transmission mechanics, and gearheads—every single one of them,” Larson says. “My toy as a kid was an engine, and I put it in everything that I could put it into. Sometimes it even ran.”
In college, when he decided to pursue music more seriously, Larson found that it was difficult to obtain a C trumpet that both sounded good and was easy to play. Rather than buying a trumpet and spending copious amounts to get modified, Larson decided to learn how to do it himself—a process that he found both complex and immensely satisfying.
It's as much witchcraft as it is science, because every piece of the instrument affects how the rest of the thing plays.
“It's as much witchcraft as it is science, because every piece of the instrument affects how the rest of the thing plays,” Larson explains. “You would think that the size of a spit valve hole wouldn’t make any difference, except for emptying spit. But, believe it or not, it's also an acoustic part.”
After college, Larson began working for Bob Malone's Brass Technology, owned by one of the head designers for Yamaha Trumpets. Seven years after starting work with Malone, Larson opened a shop of his own.
“I owned a shop in L.A. for about five years. I was playing shows at night and working on trumpets during the day,” he says. “I built an entire business by taking trumpets apart, fixing what was wrong with the assembly issues, and figuring out how all the parts worked.”
Larson smooths out dents in a trumpet bell.
Making his own trumpets
In the early 2000s, Larson discovered reliable sources where he could get bells, valve blocks, and buttons. Now he could do more than just repair trumpets; he could make his own.
To provide an example of his work, Larson holds up his own personal instrument. It’s a fascinating patchwork of different colors, which he explains is a combination of parts coated in either silver or lacquered brass. On a small plate, you can see his name engraved in cursive.
“About seven years ago, I went to Spain for a performance,” Larson reminisces. “The premier jazz trumpet player in all of Spain wanted to buy my personal instrument. I said, ‘Well, this is my horn…’”
Larson kept his trumpet, and earned an international reputation. His company, BrassWerks, now offers musicians around the world the chance to find instruments that fit their specific needs.
“It’s like shoe shopping,” Larson explains. “Each individual foot has a different shape, and you want to get shoes that fit comfortably, right? When you're playing a trumpet, it's a very physical thing. There aren’t two trumpet players that look alike, unless they're identical twins. The dentition, the oral cavity, the size of their lung capacity, how they play—each musician is different.”
The “witchcraft” comes into play when Larson makes miniscule adjustments that completely change the sound and feel of each instrument.
“Trumpets can be manipulated by thousandths of an inch in various locations on the trumpet,” he says. “It can feel like a million bucks to one person, but someone else might go, ‘Oh no, that's way too tight.’”
An Arts Academy student practices welding a trumpet under Larson's watchful eye.
Magic in the Music Center basement
All told, Larson has been tinkering with trumpets for nearly 34 years now, and his trumpets are used by musicians around the globe. He is known for building instruments that expertly balance sound quality and playability. It’s a hobby that has bled over into his personal life, too.
“If you saw my dining room table, there are about 18,000 mouthpieces on it,” he says. “My wife hates it.”
Since 2002, he has held a faculty position at Interlochen Arts Academy. In addition to teaching regular trumpet classes and private lessons, Larson channels his passion into an elective class in trumpet repair. Students learn to tap out dents in their personal instruments and even do some light welding under his watchful eye.
“Being able to repair your own instrument, or build one that fits your needs as a musician, is a superpower in today’s day and age,” Larson explains. “Students who take my elective graduate with a deeper and more intimate knowledge of their instruments than most trumpet players can claim to have.”
The boy who loved playing with engines found a unique and profitable outlet for his talents. Now, he’s sharing valuable skills with the next generation of musicians.
Interlochen Arts Academy music students receive mentorship from leading professional musicians, preparing them for success in their chosen fields. Learn more about studying music at Interlochen Arts Academy.