F&ESer Takes Her Trumpet to Letterman

How cool is the F&ES community? Here’s how cool: That was Ashley DuVal (’10 MESc), research assistant to Dean Peter Crane, blasting the trumpet with hiphop supergroup Deltron 3030 on “The Late Show with David Letterman” Tuesday night.

DuVal, who earned extra money performing in South Pacific on Broadway while she was a student at F&ES, was recruited by a friend and longtime collaborator to play a handful of East Coast shows with the band this month, culminating with a “Late Night” performance before a television audience of roughly 3 million people.

“I joked with my husband, ‘I’m just going to try not to fall off the stage,” she said. “And then I got there and realized it was a real risk because they had us on these haphazard rising platforms that were shaking all over the place. Between that and the heels I realized it was going to take a little bit of a balancing act.”

“But when it was time for the band to come on, we just got up there, did our thing, and had a lot of fun with it.”

Here’s the video. That’s Ashley rocking the trumpet in the front row, far left, on the rickety risers.

Incidentally, you might notice that the song, “City Rising from the Ashes,” touches on environmental themes. “It’s so rare to have a situation where my two worlds can intersect,” Ashley said.