Flint Journal: 'From Haiti to Flint: Haitian trumpeter and amputee determined to play music and study at Michigan State University'

[(Joseph Tobianski | The Flint Journal) (1) “Carlot Dorve of Haiti plays the trumpet in the music room at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Tuesday afternoon in Flint.” (2) “Carlot Dorve of Haiti plays the trumpet in the music room at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church along with the church's music director Edward Arter. The two plan to play together in upcoming church concerts on the east coast.”]

Trumpeter Wilmer Wise brings this story to our attention:

The Flint Journal

April 17, 2011

“FLINT, Michigan — Near scattered stacks of sheet music in a downtown church basement, Carlot Dorvé closes his eyes, gliding his fingers across the trumpet he brought from Haiti to play a soft, velvety melody. It’s a long way since the days in his home country when the Haitian trumpeter was told he could never be a musician. They told him he needed both of his hands to play.

But the amputee didn’t listen. 'I was about nine years old and I would watch the kids go to music class,' said Dorvé, 27. 'When I heard them play, I felt it, I loved it but they wouldn’t allow me to play. They said I couldn’t but I was persistent.'

“Losing his right arm as a child to an infection in Haiti meant the right-handed Dorvé had to work even harder to prove his dream to perform music was possible. Now, he’s living that dream in Flint. In the year since arriving in the city as a guest musician at Mott Community College, Dorvé has become a local sensation, known for several performances in college and church concerts around the community and state.

“His name even reached Michigan State University where an audition landed Dorvé a spot in the college of music for fall and where connections have led to the opportunity to soon receive a donated prosthetic arm. 'I got an anonymous phone call from a woman who just said “I have a trumpet player you need to hear,”' said MSU trumpet professor Richard Illman who has since performed duets with Dorvé. 'It was pretty remarkable. Playing a trumpet with one hand is no easy task and he has to do it with his left hand, which is even more difficult. It just shows such an incredible determination to play.”