by Heidi Lucas
The days were tinged with the crispness of the oncoming 2014 fall season in western Pennsylvania; peak foliage loomed, and the air was charged with the anticipation born from the excitement and promise of a newly formed collaboration. At the time, Heidi Lucas (horn), Zach Collins (tuba), and Jacob Ertl (piano) were all on the faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). They had met just prior to the beginning of the semester while recording for the Keystone Wind Ensemble album of works by Fisher Tull, through which they had been able to get a sense for each other as performers and as humans.
Lucas, Collins, and Ertl had their first trio performance as a part of a faculty recital that fall, and things clicked quickly for the group. They discovered a shared love of chamber music, found that they worked well together, and arranged to perform a recital each subsequent semester in order to keep the fun going. They held a contest to find a name for the group, and after sifting through numerous submissions, decided on “Eastern Standard,” although the name is taken from a craft beer as opposed to the time zone!
After having read through most of the available repertoire written for horn, tuba, and piano (which, at that point, they estimated to be around 2 dozen pieces), they decided that their mission would be to commission composers to write for the instrumentation, premiere, perform, and record the works, and try to raise awareness of the genre in order to promote new music and chamber music performance.
Eastern Standard (l-r): Heidi Lucas, Jacob Ertl, Zach Collins
The group has performed at IHS, ITEC, NERTEC, NEHW, SEHW, and SWHW conferences, as well as in concert at numerous universities, and more recently in public schools and community centers as part of their focus on outreach. In addition to the release of two albums—the first comprised of works that had not previously been recorded as well as three commissioned pieces, and the second entirely comprised of commissions—the group plans to release a third album of commissioned works in 2024. IUP awarded Eastern Standard a grant to support the creation of a documentary, which followed the process of the recording of their first album, Eastern Standard. Both Eastern Standard and their second album, Wanderlust, are available on streaming platforms. By December of 2024, the group will have commissioned and premiered over two dozen new works for this instrumentation. Although Collins remains at IUP, both Ertl and Lucas have moved to other institutions: Ertl is now on the faculty of Nazareth College, and Lucas at the University of Delaware. Despite the geographic challenges, the group continues to perform, tour, commission, record, and seek new ways to raise the awareness of both this type of ensemble and the composers who write for it. As part of the group’s website, they maintain a section with a listing of works for this instrumentation, as well as dissertations and relevant resources. Please contact them (via their website) if you know of any items to add to the lists.
For more information about the ensemble, the composers with whom they’ve worked, and upcoming projects, visit easternstandardtrio.com, and watch for Eastern Standard, Part 2—The Repertoire in the March issue of Horn and More.
