An Interview With Mr. Ottem
By Mason Williams and Tom Smith
For Mr. Ottem, music has always had a huge impact on his life. Although his parents pushed music onto him throughout his childhood, the trumpet stuck out as an instrument that he became obsessed with. To many, Ottem is simply known as the assistant principal of Silver Creek High, but to the band kids and many more people, Ottem is known as a trumpet-obsessed band nerd.
If you ask Ottem about how his hobby for trumpeting began, he will respond with, “My dad put one in my hand one day, and that was that. I never had a choice.” Although he learned to play the piano as a kid, he never had a strong passion for music, even when he first began playing the trumpet. His dad pushed the trumpet onto him because of the huge passion that he had himself, writing his masters thesis on trumpets and playing them throughout his life. His father’s passions slowly transferred to Ottem as he began to become attracted to the instrument himself. In college, Ottem’s passion for the trumpet flourished as he began to spend more time playing and started to expand his collection of trumpets. He purchased his first nice horn for $100 in Rhode Island, then later bought his first flugel for $400. He kept the flugel for many years and finally sold it a year and a half ago for $1800, after learning that it was a rare flugel under the brand of Clark Terry.
This buying, selling, and repairing of trumpets quickly became an obsession for Ottem, ever since he came to Silver Creek High. Although he had a enormous passion for playing the trumpet, he says that his interest in purchasing and selling trumpets sprang to life after meeting and becoming friends with the previous band teacher, Mr. Clainin. Mr. Clanin convinced Ottem to begin buying, selling, and repairing trumpets by showing him the mystic wonders and addictive tendencies of Ebay. Ottem began spending nights looking into trumpet forums to find out the values of certain trumpets and to continuously learn more about them. Over time, Ottem began to collect more and more trumpets through ebay and online sites like Goodwill’s online site.
Ottem has formed a very strong relationships with his trumpets and horns. He says, “It’s like having eight girlfriends at home, and you don’t want to kiss one of them, but one of them is going to come to you for a kiss anyway, and one night, one might look better than the others.” He has sentimental value for all of his horns. We asked him how many trumpets he had, he pondered and responded, “I have a garage full of about… a dozen or two horns, but I only have sixteen trumpets I would play a gig on.” He truly and deeply cares about his trumpets and horns. He wouldn’t call it an obsession, but a passion. A passion that he followed and stuck to.
We asked Ottem how he thinks this passion will turn out, and he responded with, “I’m gonna go belly up, and I’m gonna have a house full of trumpets, and the family is going to sit and say: “oh my God, we need to get rid of these. And I’m sure some trumpet head is going to be just like me, and come along and buy them.”. Overall trumpets have become a big part of Ottem’s life, and will continue to be a part of his life. His passion for the instrument and his continous collecting of them shows his true dedication to his hobby, and shows that there is more to our staff at Silver Creek High then meets the eye.