Monthly Archives: November 2017

Juan Calderin is a gifted former student of mine, and a promising young composer. He was kind enough to turn a composition assignment exploring the capabilities bass trombone from a “dead end” to a thing of beauty for the noble … Continue reading →

Ten years at Interlochen, and one can see (and more importantly), hear a great deal. From colleagues to visiting artists, from students to the stirrings of your own soul and sound. Double down on that as two time editor of … Continue reading →

Lightning is a force of nature. Powerful. Incendiary. Blazing into the future. Sonorously twined with thunder. The connective tissue of heaven and earth; shaking both. Roland Szentpali is a four-valved bolt of lightning from one century to anther. The “Fourth … Continue reading →

When a young trombonist, (who looked a little bit like Harry Potter behind his thick glasses), asked me who the tenor trombone soloists of the “Chicago School” of trombone playing were, it gave me pause. Charlie Vernon springs to mind … Continue reading →