The morning before performing at Boston Calling with indie supergroup Big Red Machine, trumpeter John Michael Bradford B.M. '19 called trombonist Ethan Santos B.M. '19. We have a rehearsal like, right now, he said. Can you make it?
The band, co-led by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner of the National, had reached out to Berklee that week looking for two brass players to join them for a couple songs during their Saturday night festival set. Bradford and Santos said yes to the last-minute opportunity, and by the end of that week they found themselves preparing to perform with a band they were just meeting, on songs they had little time to learn.
At rehearsals, Bradford and Santos were given the freedom and trust to create their own parts. The band played through the two songs the horns would feature in, offering some notes about chords and the general melody, but they left the specifics open. We're pretty loose, they told the recent Berklee graduates. You can play whatever-you sound great.
Preparing for the Unknown So how do you prepare for a gig you had no idea you would be offered, with a band you've never played with, playing songs you haven't had much time to rehearse, at New England's premier popular music festival, with only a couple days' notice?
It's built up over a number of years, says Santos. We both grew up with a lot of jazz. There's a lot of using your ear with that kind of music.
Prepare to Take the Stage
Learn more about honing your performance skills at Berklee.
It's really about reacting and listening, Bradford adds, and being aware of the vibe of the music and the musicians you're playing with.
It also helped that Santos and Bradford were already well acquainted with each other as musicians. They had been playing together since 2015, when they both participated in Grammy in the Schools national honors jazz band before coming to Berklee. During their time as performance majors, they shared the stage on numerous occasions, and plan to continue performing together and collaborating as Berklee alumni.
Nerves Are Natural I wasn't nervous until we got up behind the stage, recalls Bradford. The audience was huge, and they knew all the songs. There were at least a few thousand people.
But nerves, Santos says, are a natural part of the job: I've spent a lot of time as a performer not trying to get rid of the nervousness, but trying to understand how to perform with it and play with it. You'll have these feelings as you're playing, and it's just a matter of not letting it affect your stage presence, not letting it affect your performance.
Listen to the studio version of Big Red Machines Hymnostic, the first of two tracks Bradford and Santos contributed their horns to:
When Dessner introduced Bradford and Santos (with a nod to Berklee) and they joined the band for the song Hymnostic, it was as though the whole performance shifted into a higher gear nobody knew existed. The band was so good, Bradford says. Everyone was so solid, so it just came together. Bradford's New Orleans-tinged trumpet lines over Santos' harmonies brought the song into a celebratory space that carried into the next song, I Won't Run from It, on which they also featured.
And heres the studio recording of Big Red Machines I Wont Run from It:
The two horn players left the stage to loud cheers from the audience, and the energy they brought to the stage had done something to transform the whole performance well after their two songs had ended.
It was easy to sense the crowds appreciation, Bradford says. The music felt great, and the energy from the crowd-they loved it. It seemed like they were super excited when we came out, and that we were a part of it.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
West Coast News Berklee Today
Fall
2018
Volume
30
Number
2
Finding the Groove at DCU Berklee Today
Fall
2018
Volume
30
Number
2
Night School at Wally's Berklee Today
Fall
2018
Volume
30
Number
2
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
Meet Seven Students from Berklee's Class of 2019 Berklee will celebrate its newest class of innovative artists and music professionals.
Latest
Berklee Brass Players Take the Stage at Boston Calling Recent alumni John Michael Bradford and Ethan Santos took a last-minute opportunity to perform with members of Bon Iver and the National in the indie supergroup Big Red Machine.
Roger H. Brown Honored by Williams College, Boston Arts Academy Berklee's president was recognized for his contributions to education and the arts.
Billy Childs Named Visiting Scholar at Berklee As the inaugural Ken Pullig Visiting Scholar in Jazz Studies, the five-time Grammy-winner will coach a student ensemble, work with faculty, and present master classes.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
The morning before performing at Boston Calling with indie supergroup Big Red Machine, trumpeter John Michael Bradford B.M. '19 called trombonist Ethan Santos B.M. '19. We have a rehearsal like, right now, he said. Can you make it? 
