Tooting his own horn: Springfield man plays trumpet for touchdowns, anthems and funerals

Waiting in the tunnel before the Eugene Emeralds played the Vancouver Canadians Aug. 22, Barry Barreau ran a rag over the valves of his trumpet and worked a drop of oil into each one, the same as he’s done since middle school.

He wore a shirt with a flag split down the middle, half Canadian, half American. His trumpet, a used Bach Stradivarius he’s carried for at least 15 years, caught the tunnel light as he lifted it to his lips, warming 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 been playing the trumpet since the sixth grade. He was born and raised in Creswell, and he remembers the moment he made up his mind to pursue trumpet.

“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 tune 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 considered blasphemy to quit, considering his parents were paying. 

Luckily for Barreau, his piano teacher’s daughter got braces and also played the cornet, a slightly more compact version of a trumpet with a mellower tone.

Her braces didn’t pair well with playing the cornet.

His mom bought the cornet from the piano teacher, and Barreau hasn’t missed a beat 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, bolts out the back door, tightens his embouchure and blasts “Mighty Oregon” for all the residents in his Springfield neighborhood to hear.

Barreau graduated from UO in 1978 and is proud of his Ducks and loves being draped in Duck gear — no matter what venue he’s playing — with calf-high Ducks socks, Duck-colored sneakers and a yellow and green polo shirt. 

He played in both marching and pep bands during his time at UO. 

“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 plays in the Oregon Alumni Band the first two football home games of every year, before the student band gets into town. 

Eugene and Springfield residents might recognize him from his performances on the baseball diamonds at Springfield Drifters and Eugene Emeralds games, where he regularly plays the national anthem.

Barreau plays often in front of large audiences and is a self-described extrovert, but he still gets nervous playing sometimes.

He played for 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 looks back at the trials. He says the announcer introduced him to the crowd as a singer, not as a trumpet player.

“My first thought was, ‘Here’s my chance to show my singing abilities,'” Barreau said with a chuckle.

A man of many gigs

Those athletic events are just a few of his many gigs. Barreau plays all sorts of music.

He’s played with the Junction City Polka Band for more than a decade, he performs with the Eugene-Springfield Community Orchestra and the Springfield Community Concert Band, and he even had a stint as a member of a mariachi band.

From Aug. 13 to 16, Barreau and the Junction City Polka Band played at the Scandinavian Festival. The band had baritone horns, trombones, tubas, trumpets, clarinets and accordions.

Keoki Brown, an incoming freshman at UO, joined the polka band this year, and played with Barreau for the first time this summer. He plays the trumpet, like Barreau, and as the band ran through the different polka tunes ahead of the festival, the two exchanged jokes.

“This is probably the best guy that you could have personality-wise,” Brown said. “He’s the most aligned with the community.”

Barreau’s 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 played five services in a single morning — a pace he kept up even through the pandemic, when official services were canceled but families still showed up to lay flowers.

“Playing on Memorial Day and playing taps has a special meaning for me,” Barreau said.

As a child, Barreau had multiple surgeries on his right leg. He had a condition that made one leg grow faster than the other, which kept him from serving in 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 make one.

Game time

Back at the Emeralds game, out in the stands, about 40 people in the stands were watching for him. Ten family members scattered among a cluster of faces from his church and its youth group. He wet his lips, emptied his spit valve one final time, and walked out to find them before the anthem began.

As the crowd rose, Barreau raised his horn. He worked through the Canadian national anthem steadily and unhurried, and climbed 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 way off.