The following 22 pages are in this category, out of 22 total, this list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
1. David Cornwall – David Randolph Cornwall was an American composer and systems engineer. He wrote music for piano, horns, woodwinds and orchestra, Cornwall was born in Denver, Colorado. After studying math and physics at Harvard College for one and a half years, returning to Denver, he worked a systems engineer for United Airlines while performing for the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and studying under its conductor, Antonia Brico. After receiving a discharge from the army, Cornwall returned to the airline industry. Later in his career he received an MBA in economics from the University of Chicago, upon his retirement in 2001, Cornwall returned to music, this time as a composer. Over the next five years, he composed dozens of works at the Denver University Lamont School of Music, in late September 2006, several weeks after producing a draft of his final composition, Lullaby for Kayleigh, Cornwall developed severe sepsis following intestinal surgery. He died of complications from his illness on November 7,2006 in Lone Tree, Colorado, as part of his funeral the following week, his Fugue in Four Parts was performed on the pipe organ at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, Denver. Johns Cathedral, Denver Parade of the Wedding Party, performed by the Lamont Symphony Orchestra
2. Stuart Dempster – Stuart Dempster is a trombonist, didjeridu player, improvisor, and composer. After Dempster completed his studies at San Francisco State College, he was appointed assistant professor at the California State College at Hayward, and instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory. During this period he was also a member of the Performing Group at Mills College, in 1967–68 he was a Creative Associate at the State University of New York at Buffalo under Lukas Foss. The following year he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Washington, in Seattle, in 1971–72 he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, and in 1973 he was a senior Fulbright scholar to Australia. In 1979 the University of California Press published his book, The Modern Trombone and he received a Guggenheim Fellowship award in 1981. He has commissioned and performed works by Luciano Berio, Rob du Bois, Donald Erb, Robert Erickson, Andrew Imbrie, Ernst Krenek and he has collaborated with former classmate Pauline Oliveros and Panaiotis including co-founding the Deep Listening Band. He commissioned Theater Piece for Trombone Player from Oliveros and choreographer Elizabeth Harris, Dempster practices yoga and breath control including circular breathing. He is credited with introducing the didjeridu to North America, the Modern Trombone, A Definition of Its Idioms. Berkeley and Los Angeles, The University of California Press,1979, in The Great Abbey of Clement VI Robert Suderburg, Chamber Music III, for trombone and piano. Also with Suderburgs Chamber Music IV, for ensemble, Chamber music V, for voice, string quartet. Elizabeth Suderburg, soprano, Ciompi String Quartet, University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel, S. Pran, Raga For The Rainy Season. Biographical Information about Stuart Dempster, Stuart Dempster faculty page, University of Washington, all Fellows, Fellows 301–350 of 799. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. Von Gunden, Heidi, The Music of Pauline Oliveros, Metuchen, art of the States, Stuart Dempster General Speech by Robert Erickson
3. Timothy Mahr – Timothy Mahr is a professor of music at St. Olaf College, and an American composer and conductor. Mahr was born in Reedsburg, Wisconsin and he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Theory and Composition in 1977 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education in 1978, both from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1983 he completed a Masters degree at the University of Iowa in Trombone Performance and he completed his doctorate Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting in 1995, also at the University of Iowa. Currently, he is a professor of music at St. Olaf College, Mahr teaches courses in composition, music education, and conducting. Mahr remains active as a guest conductor and clinician, in demand as a guest composer/conductor on over 35 college, mahrs compositions have been performed by ensembles worldwide, and many have been published. He received the 1991 ABA/Ostwald Award for his work The Soaring Hawk, Mahr was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Associations in 1993. Mahr conducted the Massachusetts All-State band at Symphony Hall in Boston and this performance featured his outstanding original score, Endurance, based on Shackletons attempt to reach the South Pole. In 2010, Mahr was a clinician for the 50th anniversary of the WELS National Band Festival in Onalaska and he composed the piece Tres Solas specifically for this event. Mahr is perhaps best known for his compositions for concert band, including the highly descriptive tone poem The Soaring Hawk and he is married to Jill Mahr, music performer and educator, and they have two daughters, Jenna and Hannah. St. Olaf College St. Olaf Band Minnesota Symphonic Winds A Musical Mind St. Olaf College Department of Music
4. Bill McGlaughlin – William Bill McGlaughlin is an American composer, conductor, music educator, and Peabody Award-winning classical music radio host. He is the host and music director of the radio programs Exploring Music. A nationally noted radio commentator, Bill McGlaughlin is known for his cheerful, open, Bill absorbed the music of opera at a very young age, as his draftsman father listened while in his at-home workshop. When Bill was 6, his father gave him a harmonica and his father also had many instrumental classical albums, which Bill enjoyed listening to in his own bedroom. Bills mother, a high-school English teacher, was also a music lover, by his second lesson, McGlaughlin knew he wanted to be a professional musician, and began practicing eight hours a day. In high school, McGlaughlin took up the trombone, which he studied in college. Upon graduation in 1967 he became Assistant Principal Trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, from 1969 to 1975 McGlaughlin was Co-Principal Trombonist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He also performed as trombonist during many of his 1975–1982 years with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, orchestral performance sparked McGlaughlins interest in conducting — an interest which was encouraged by Pittsburgh Symphonys William Steinberg. McGlaughlin also became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra during his period with the Pittsburgh Symphony, during McGlaughlins years as a trombonist after his masters degree, he brought a full orchestral score to rehearsals, taking careful notes on how good and poor conductors handled difficult passages. In 1973, he asked Georg Solti whether he should pursue a career, Solti encouraged him. McGlaughlin formed three orchestras in Pittsburgh that year — an orchestra of college students, the Pittsburgh Camerata, and his practice paid off, In 1975, he was awarded the Exxon-Arts Conducting Endowment, and an assistant conductorship at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Eventually, this became a desire to compose on his own. In 1998, McGlaughlin left his position and moved to New York City to concentrate on composing. The composition, Walt Whitmans Dream, premiered in July 2000, the piece has been re-broadcast on radio three times. Some of his work incorporates or references elements of jazz — for instance Belas Bounce, in the late 1970s, during his conducting stint in Saint Paul, Minnesota, McGlaughlin often spoke to the audience before a performance, informally explaining the program and what to listen for. Garrison Keillor heard him, and invited McGlaughlin to fill in occasionally as host of his morning radio show on Minnesota Public Radio. MPR producer Tom Voegeli came up with the idea for a new show, Saint Paul Sunday Morning, MPR had just received a public radio communications satellite uplink, as well as seed money to develop a few pilot shows for national distribution. Voegeli wanted a program which would present world-class musicians, in a live setting in MPRs new state-of-the-art studio
5. Raymond Premru – Raymond Eugene Premru was an American trombonist, composer, and music teacher, who was based for most of his career in London, England. The son of a Methodist minister, Premru was born in Elmira in western New York State, as a teenager he took up the trombone, and began studying with Dale Clark at the Eastman School of Music’s preparatory department. After high school he enrolled at Eastman to study trombone with Emory Remington, soon after graduating in 1956, he travelled to England for further composition study with Peter Racine Fricker, intending to stay a few months. He began freelancing on trombone and bass trumpet, becoming a regular in the London jazz scene with groups like the Kenny Baker’s Dozen, in 1958, he won the bass trombone position in the Philharmonia Orchestra, where he would serve for the next 30 years. Also in 1958, he married Susan Talbot, with whom he would have two daughters, in addition to performances and regular recording with the Philharmonia, Premru continued to freelance. As a session musician, he would play and record with, among others, Frank Sinatra, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. In 1964 he joined the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, for which he would write several pieces and he also co-directed, and composed for, the Bobby Lamb/Ray Premru Big Band. Premru’s pedagogy rested largely on the legacy of Remington, while at Oberlin he continued to perform occasionally, and to compose. In 1990 he remarried, to Janet Jacobs, in 1997 he was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for music. That same year he was diagnosed with cancer, and he died at the Cleveland Clinic the following May. Premru’s compositional output runs from jazz arrangements to choral works, and includes pieces commissioned by leading orchestras, festivals. In 1962, he did work on the feature film Reach for Glory in the capacity as music conductor, in a 1981 interview with Capital Radio, he cited as influences the music of Berg, Prokofiev, Bartók and Ives, in addition to jazz and early Bach studies. His large-scale works include concertos for Trombone, Trumpet, and Tuba, Music for Three Trombones, Tuba and Orchestra, a Concerto for Orchestra, and two symphonies. Most were commissioned and premiered by major ensembles, however none have been recorded as of 2007 and only the Trumpet. Retrieved on 2007-03-16 Raymond E. Premru, Professor of Trombone and Esteemed Colleague, retrieved on 2007-03-16 Roy, Klaus G. Raymond Premru, Player/Composer. Retrieved on 2007-03-16 Paine, Anne C, summertime Surprise, Premru Wins Cleveland Arts Prize. Retrieved on 2007-03-16 Slonimsky, Nicolas, rev, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians—Centennial Edition, Vol.5, p.2858. Contemporary American Composeers, a Biographical Dictionary, p.414, ISBN 0-8161-8223-X Press, ed. Who’s Who in American Music, Classical 2nd Edition, p.470
6. Arthur Pryor – Arthur Willard Pryor was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. He was a composer of band music, his best-known composition being The Whistler. In later life, he became a Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, Pryor was born on the second floor of the Lyceum Theater in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He was the son of Samuel Pryor, bandmaster and founder of the original Pryor band, Arthur first took up music at a very young age under the tutelage of his father and was playing the valve trombone by age 11. The story goes that whenever he hit a sour note while practicing, the boy developed until he was so skilled that he won a place in the John Philip Sousas band. He was hailed as a prodigy after this, Pryor went on to direct the Stanley Opera Company in Denver, Colorado until joining the John Philip Sousa Band in 1892. He played his first solo with the Sousa Band at age 22 during the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, during his 12 years with the Sousa Band, Pryor estimated that he played 10,000 solos. From 1895 to 1903, Pryor was assistant conductor of the Sousa Band, during his association with the March King, Pryor toured throughout the USA and Europe. While in Europe, he entertained King Edward VII of England, once while in Germany, all the trombonists of the German Army bands were ordered to hear him play. They were so amazed at his playing that they insisted on taking his trombone apart, finally one German said, No one can play so well. In 1902 after the death of his father, Pryor ended his association with Sousa and took over the reorganized Pryor band, for 30 years thereafter, Pryors band was an American institution. He made his first appearance in Asbury Park, New Jersey at the Shore in 1904, the Pryor Band toured until 1909, when he decided to settle down and make Asbury Park the home of the band. Also at this time, he became a conductor and arranger for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden. He organized a band that played at the entertainment complex of Coney Island, New York. Pryor retired from conducting in 1933. On November 7 of that year, he and Henry W. Herbert were elected to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, newcomb and his running mate, Arthur Johnson. Pryor and Herbert would each serve one, three-year term in office, in the 1936 election, they were defeated by Republicans J. Russell Woolley and Edgar O. Murphy. Pryor was married to Maude Russell Pryor and their son Roger Pryor also became a bandleader and a film actor
7. Emory Remington – Emory Brace Remington was a trombonist and music teacher. His unique method made him one of the most well-known and influential trombone educators in history. He was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1923 to 1949, born in Rochester, New York on December 22,1892, Emory Remington began his musical studies in the Boys Choir of an Episcopal Church. His Father, Fred Remington, an instructor who played cornet and trumpet. By the age of 17 he was a member with the Rochester Park Band, in 1917 Remington joined the United States Navy and was assigned to the orchestra at a training station near Chicago. One of his bunkmates in the Navy orchestra was comedian/violinist Jack Benny, upon returning from the Navy, Remington joined the Eastman Theater Orchestra in Rochester, also becoming a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music in 1922. He would remain on faculty there for the rest of his life, as a trombone teacher he was affectionately known to his students as The Chief. Remington was fond of singing, and during his lessons he would sing along with the students trombone sound and his emphasis, whether in warm-up or in practice, was on relaxation and playing in a conversational and singing manner. This was quite different from the more traditional methods of the time which focused on more marcato. Another of Remingtons contributions was the Eastman Trombone Choir, a large ensemble of trombonists would gather to play music written for multiple trombones or transcribed from other sources, such as the chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach. Separating the different musical parts into sections of trombonists, and transposing the music into the registers for the trombone. Remington encouraged his students to transcribe music for ensemble, amassing a large library of new works for it. The music of J. S. Bach became the backbone of the ensemble, Remington used this great music as a tool to train his students in the art of ensemble performance. Ralph Sauer has made a reputation with his beautiful transcriptions of the music of Bach. Donald Hunsbergers transcription of Bachs Passacaglia and Fugue is considered one of the first of the great Bach transcriptions, selected sections from his method include exercises designed around sustained long tones, security in the high register, legato tonguing, flexibility or lip-slurs, and pattern scales. In 1954, Remington completed work in conjunction with C. G. Conn Ltd. in developing the C. G. Conn 88H tenor trombone. The unique tone color and dynamic range of the instrument have made it popular amongst trombonists, Conn also manufactured a Remington tenor trombone mouthpiece which was available in either silver or gold plate. Remington encouraged his first year students to switch to this mouthpiece, the effect of the 88H combined with the Remington mouthpiece produced a very uniform sound in the Trombone Choir and trombone sections in the large ensembles