This week, some 30,000 educators, vendors, and students are in San Antonio for the annual Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Clinic & Convention. There are dozens of performances and workshops, some of which are even open to the public. The young talent is inspiring, and today on the convention floor, I browsed about the booths and saw scores of high school kids excitedly trying out new instruments.
One of those vendors is Houghton Horns, located in Keller, Texas. I stopped briefly to talk with one of the company’s co-owners, Derek Wright.
Nathan Cone: How long does it take you to set up all this when you get here to the convention center?
Derek Wright: A long, long time! But we got in yesterday around three o'clock, went till 6:30, and then started this morning at nine. And as you can see, we're still going here, even though we're winding down—luckily—so, a day and a half or so.
Cone: You probably go to many clinics or events like this in different places, but being in Texas, you recognize TMEA. And so where does this fall, in your opinion, in terms of like, the importance of being at something like this?
Wright: Oh, this is by far our most important show of the year, and most well attended. There are thousands and thousands of educators, and not only educators, but students and amateurs and professional musicians who come to the show just because there's so much to learn and so much to see. And aside from NAMM, this has got to be the largest music exhibitor floor in the country.
Cone: Who are your main customers? Are they educators? Or the wide-eyed student who sees one of these shiny, great horns and says, you know, I want to aim towards that one day.
Wright: Yes. They're all our customers! We started off as a pro shop which catered to professionals exclusively, especially with many of our horns that are imported from Europe, and that is still a big part of our business. But we also now have our own line of instruments that we sell to students and also target band programs and such around the country. We also provide a wide range of services to people, for example, renting double horns, which is something you find many music shops don't do. And we also have many, many instruments that we sell to students and amateurs. So we we're for all people who love brass instruments,
Cone: It's great to just make connections and make music. I mean the vibe of this whole thing always seems to be, every time I attend, it's just like everybody is in like, such a great mood all the time!
Wright: It seems, yeah, people are really happy to be here. Because it's kind of like if you love music, and you love musical instruments, TMEA is a candy store, because you can try basically any instrument from around the world, anything you've been curious about, even if you're not shopping for a horn, if you just want to see, how does this horn play?
