At just 22, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's principal trumpet player, Owen Morris, has already experienced success of which many musicians can only dream.

“I just kind of fell into it,” says Owen Morris, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Trumpet player.

Becoming the Principal Trumpet of an internationally-renowned orchestra is a career highlight. Actually, just having a full time career as a musician is an achievement. But having both of these things by the age of 22 – seems incredible.

So, when Owen tells us he simply “fell into” becoming Australia’s youngest Principal Trumpet, we can’t help but be skeptical.

“I was listening to a concert near my house and I heard this trumpet guy playing and I thought ‘wow, that sounds pretty good.’ I went up to him and I asked if I could have some trumpet lessons. I went to his house on a Wednesday. I was 10 maybe, and it all seemed to happen from there.”

Owen continued his trumpet lessons into the final years of high school, at which point he decided he wanted to pursue music full-time and proceeded to University and study at the Conservatorium in Sydney.

Here in Adelaide we’re good at lamenting the lack of opportunity for young people and fear we’re losing them to the eastern states, while Owen is proving the opposite is true – moving his life to South Australia after successfully auditioning for the recently vacated position of Principal Trumpet for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

“I think it was just a real series of fortunate events, where the timing was right,” says Owen. “I was actually booked to do a week of work [in Adelaide] when the audition was on, so I just did the audition, and I just happened to be sort of the player that they wanted on the day,” Owen says.

Perhaps Owen is over cautious when it comes to tooting his own horn but throughout our conversation, Owen speaks neither of his talent nor any extraordinary moments that lead to his success. Instead, he tells us of the incredible amount of hours he spent practicing.

“I just think the big decision I made was to practice as much as I could,” Owen says.

“I didn’t consciously do anything else other than practice. There was no situation where I was the star. I just did lots of hard work.

“Throughout the end of high school and all through uni, it’s all I wanted to do was be the best trumpet player I could be. And so I would be practicing up to 8 hours a day, just getting everything as good as it possibly could, so that, for example, when an audition here came up, I was so prepared that the only thing that was not going to get me the job was if someone would be better than me.

“And I’m still practicing a lot, I still want to get better. There’s still a lot more stuff I want to do.”

And if you’re wondering what sort of a leader Owen will be for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra we got a little insight into his sense of humour when we discussing the issue of nerves on stage.

“I always get nervous. Once at a concert, we were just about to start, and someone’s phone went dadada daa daa dadada and we all went, ‘ugh’ and I went and I played it back to them. Everyone started laughing, but it eased that tension. It can be kind of funny, but it’s not ideal.”

If boxing is about rolling with the punches then success in music must come from being able to take a deep breath and exhale when things go a bit pear-shaped on stage.

And if you’re wondering what it takes to be a successful audience member next time you’re at the Symphony  – you could definitely start by switching off your phone.