Thoughts on focusing on one type of music.

As a professional trumpet player it seems that the best thing to keep yourself and your family alive, is to be able to play as many styles and settings as you can. But I also noticed that if you really focus on one thing, that the audience will recognize you for that and want you for that. That is a bit of a dilemma.
When I was a kid I learned to play the trumpet in a brass band. At that time it was simply not done to play popular music in those bands. We played arrangements of the classics, like La Gazza Ladra or original pieces, but always classical music. My first teachers only taught me to play classical, too, but when I was 16, I played in a bigband for the first time, and I started to listen to Clifford Brown, Wynton Marsalis and Freddie Hubbard. It appeared that I had a talent for improvising and I loved playing in a bigband.
I went to the conservatory in Hilversum, which was the first conservatory where you could learn to play jazz and bigband. The first years I couldn't really choose between jazz and classical music, so I tried to play both, which didn't work out so well, because of severe embouchure trouble. I had to make a choice and I chose jazz as my main object. This narrowed down other playing possibilities, but I wasn't too aware of that at that time, nor did I have much of a choice. I only had so much time.
In the end I really dug into jazz and even specialized a bit further. I became an improvising soloist. I still play in a bigband, my reading is still very good, and occasionally I play in horn sections, but how things are developing now it looks like it isn't so bad to specialize and focus on being an improviser. I mean, there are a lot of great players out there, but if you listen carefully they all have their fortes and their flaws. If they stick to what they are really good at and go that way, they may well be on their way to have a lot of work in that area. So, the message here might be that contrary to what seems logical or wise to do-try to be able to play all kinds of different styles and settings-, maybe it isn't so bad to focus yourself on what comes most natural to you.
However, to find out what you really want, you need to play everything, listen a lot to all kinds of music and be open to music that doesn't seem to be something for you. I mean, I was classically trained, I didn't know what jazz was, and the first time I heard it, it didn't feel like something I was going to do for the rest of my life...
By the way, that doesn't mean that I never play or listen to other music anymore. Maybe the other way around. I keep my eyes and ears open to all kinds of music and make my own stew out of it. That is what makes it my music. I love to try and play classical music and I love to play in a bigband section or in a pop band. That keeps it fresh and alive. But professionally I think it isn't so bad to have a clear image of what you are best at and go from there.