Waiting in the tunnel before the Eugene Emeralds took on the Vancouver Canadians on Aug. 22, Barry Barreau wiped down the valves of his trumpet with a rag and applied a drop of oil to each one, the same routine he’s followed since middle school.
He had on a shirt split down the middle, half Canadian and half American. His used Bach Stradivarius trumpet, which he’s carried for at least 15 years, glinted in the tunnel light as he lifted it to his lips and warmed up with arpeggios and long, low tones.
“The lip is a muscle,” he said, working through a set of scales. “Low notes are jogging. High notes are sprints. You jog to warm up, or you’ll rip some lip muscles.”
A life in brass
Barreau has played the trumpet since the sixth grade. He grew up in Creswell and remembers the exact moment he decided to take up the instrument.
“There was this high school girl playing Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass at a high school basketball game when I was in middle school,” Barreau said, humming the melody of “Spanish Flea.” “I saw that and said I’ve just got to play trumpet.”
He was taking piano lessons at the time, and he said it would have been a sin to quit, given that his parents were footing the bill.
Fortunately for Barreau, his piano teacher’s daughter had just gotten braces and also played the cornet, a slightly more compact version of a trumpet with a softer tone.
Her braces didn’t mix well with playing the cornet.
His mother purchased the cornet from the piano teacher, and Barreau has been playing nonstop ever since.
Duck pride
Every time the Oregon Ducks football team scores a touchdown, Barreau’s neighbors find out, even if they aren’t watching the game. Barreau grabs his trumpet, runs out the back door, firms up his embouchure and blasts “Mighty Oregon” for everyone in his Springfield neighborhood to hear.
Barreau graduated from UO in 1978 and takes pride in his Ducks, loving to be decked out in Duck gear no matter where he’s playing, complete with calf-high Ducks socks, Duck-colored sneakers and a yellow and green polo shirt.
He played in both the marching and pep bands during his college years.
“I got behind in some of my requisites, so I went part time for two more terms,” Barreau said. “But that also allowed me to stay in the marching band and pep band longer.”
He now performs with the Oregon Alumni Band during the first two football home games of each year, before the student band arrives in town.
Eugene and Springfield residents may recognize him from his performances on the baseball diamonds at Springfield Drifters and Eugene Emeralds games, where he regularly plays the national anthem.
Barreau frequently performs for large audiences and considers himself an extrovert, but he still gets nervous sometimes.
He performed at the Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in 2024. “In front of 20,000 people in the stands, I was scared spitless,” Barreau said. “You can’t be spitless because if you dry up. You can’t go for the high C at the end of the anthem.”
Barreau shakes his head when he thinks back on the trials. He says the announcer introduced him to the crowd as a singer, not a trumpet player.
“My first thought was, ‘Here’s my chance to show my singing abilities,'” Barreau said with a laugh.
A man of many gigs
Those athletic events are only a handful of his many gigs. Barreau plays all kinds of music.
He’s performed with the Junction City Polka Band for over a decade, plays with the Eugene-Springfield Community Orchestra and the Springfield Community Concert Band, and even spent time as a member of a mariachi band.
From Aug. 13 to 16, Barreau and the Junction City Polka Band performed at the Scandinavian Festival. The band featured baritone horns, trombones, tubas, trumpets, clarinets and accordions.
Keoki Brown, an incoming freshman at UO, joined the polka band this year and played alongside Barreau for the first time this summer. He plays the trumpet, like Barreau, and as the band ran through the various polka tunes before the festival, the two swapped jokes.
“This is probably the best guy that you could have personality-wise,” Brown said. “He’s the most aligned with the community.”
Barreau has also played taps for veteran funerals since 1969, when he was in eighth grade, and he’s completely booked every year on Memorial Day. This year he performed five services in a single morning, a pace he maintained even through the pandemic, when official services were canceled but families still came out to lay flowers.
“Playing on Memorial Day and playing taps has a special meaning for me,” Barreau said.
As a child, Barreau underwent multiple surgeries on his right leg. He had a condition that caused one leg to grow faster than the other, which kept him out of the military during the Vietnam War after he was drafted.
He’s registered with the federal Bugler Corps program, which connects volunteer trumpeters with veterans’ funerals, and he’ll drive up to 35 miles out to Oakridge to play one.
Game time
Back at the Emeralds game, out in the stands, about 40 people were waiting for him. Ten family members were scattered among a cluster of faces from his church and its youth group. He wet his lips, emptied his spit valve one last time, and walked out to find them before the anthem began.
As the crowd stood, Barreau lifted his horn. He moved through the Canadian national anthem steadily and unhurried, building toward the ending.
He did the same for the American national anthem. The high C came out clean and he held it. Barreau lowered the trumpet, grinning, and Sluggo, the mascot, met him on his way off the field with a high five before he made his exit.
Leave a Comment