1ST
ANNUAL
FORT WORTH TROMBONE SUMMIT and
COURTOIS TROMBONE QUARTET COMPETITION
COURTOIS TROMBONE QUARTET COMPETITION
Ron Barron - Former Principal Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1975 until 2008. He joined the orchestra in 1970 after being a member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and also served as Principal Trombonist of the Boston Pops for thirteen seasons. Mr. Barron is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, where he studied with Ernest Glover. During his college years, he also toured with the American Wind Symphony.
In 1974, Ronald Barron shared the highest prize awarded at the Munich International Competition. This included a solo appearance, where he performed the Frank Martin Ballade for trombone and orchestra with the competition sponsor, the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra. Mr. Barron was a frequent soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra and appeared with a number of New England area orchestras and bands. As a recitalist he has performed across the U.S., Europe and Japan. In addition to numerous recordings with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops, Mr. Barron has recorded and performed with the Canadian Brass, Empire Brass, and Summit Brass, and has nine successful solo recordings.
Mr. Barron has been a faculty member for the International Trombone Workshop and the Keystone Brass Institute, and teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music. He formerly taught at Boston University and the Tanglewood Music Center. He is on the board of advisors for the International Trombone Association and has served on the juries for the international competitions of Toulon, France, and Munich, Germany. Mr. Barron received the 2005 ITA Award from the International Trombone Association. "In recognition of his distinguished career and in acknowledgement of his impact on the world of trombone performance."
During the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood season, Mr. Barron and his wife Ina operate their bed and breakfast, Échézeaux, in Richmond, MA. Through his deep interest in wine he has earned the level of “Certified Specialist of Wine” as awarded by the Society of Wine Educators.
Dennis Bubert - Dennis Bubert, trombone, teaches applied trombone, brass class, and conducts the trombone choir at UTA. He previously taught at Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas. His former students hold positions in major and regional orchestras, military bands, and schools and universities across the United States. Mr. Bubert is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and has done post-graduate study at the University of North Texas. His principal teachers include Edward Kleinhammer and Arnold Jacobs, both long-time members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Mr. Bubert has been the bass trombonist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1981. He previously held the same post in the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and has performed with virtually every major ensemble in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Opera. He has also played at a number of music festivals in this country and appeared as a recitalist/clinician in the US and abroad.
"I try to teach with the complete musician in mind--physical, mental, and musical--and encourage my students to be as much involved as possible with the musical aspects of performing while de-emphasizing the physical process of creating that performance. It's important for them as musicians to be very involved with artistry, and minimally involved with mechanics."
In addition to his dual roles as teacher and performer, Mr. Bubert is also the originator and editor of the "Orchestral Excerpt Class" column in the quarterly Journal of the International Trombone Association.
Ron Wilkins - Ron Wilkins resides in San Antonio, Texas and is a graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School. He attended North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) from 1976-1982, and later (1992) graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio. In 1984, Ron enlisted in the United Sates Air Force and was a member of the USAF Band of the West, where he was a featured instrumentalist and vocalist. In December 2008, he received his Master of Music Performance Degree (Jazz Emphasis) from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.
Ron’s diversified career has led to performances with the San Antonio Symphony and Festival Orchestra, the Austin Symphony, the Austin Pops Orchestra, the Mid-Texas Symphony, the Victoria Texas Symphony, the Temple (TX) Symphony Orchestra, and the Flint (MI) Symphony Orchestra, where he was twice a guest artist for their summer pops concert series. Ron currently plays tuba and bass trombone with the Capitol of Texas Brass Quintet and the Riverbend Brass. His Broadway show credits include ”West Side Story,“ ”Showboat,“ ”The Producers,“ ”The Lion King,“ ”Wicked,“ and many others.
Ron has performed with Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Lena Horne, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, ”Dizzy“ Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, and other well-known entertainers. As a noted jazz musician, Ron performs with his group (the Ron Wilkins 4-Tet) in the San Antonio/Austin area. In 2004, Ron’s group was named the San Antonio Current Magazine’s Best Jazz Band, and in March 2008, the 4-Tet toured Russia for two weeks with Russian classical and jazz virtuoso pianist, Valeri Grokovski. In May 2002, Ron was a featured artist for the International Trombone Association Festival, held at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX.
As an educator, Ron cultivates a studio that produces many Texas All-State Band and Orchestra performers. He teaches trombone and low brass methods, jazz improvisation/history, and jazz literature/styles. In 2005, Ron became trombone and jazz studies instructor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has performed at numerous jazz festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Wichita Jazz Festival, and the Mile High Jazz Festival in Denver, CO. In 2001, Ron was Artist in Residence at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Ron is an Edwards Trombone artist and clinician. He released his first cd (”Tribute to the Masters“) in 2000, has a second cd with former Ringling Brothers Circus trombonist, Bill Gibson (”The Bundee Brothers Bone Band“-2005,) and is finishing his third cd, ”The Sleeper has Awakened.“
David Jackson - Featured soloist at several recent engagements, including performances at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Music at Gretna in Mt. Gretna, PA, and with the Ann Arbor Concert Band. He was also guest soloist with Los Angeles Symphonic Winds, both in Los Angeles and at the MidEurope Festival in Schladming, Austria. Other recent solo performances include the Interlochen World Youth Wind Symphony and with the Idyllwild Festival Wind Ensemble at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
In addition to these performances, Professor Jackson recently performed master classes and recitals at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the University of Minnesota, UCLA, California State University-Northridge, and Pepperdine University.
An advocate of new music, Jackson has commissioned and performed the world premieres of numerous works for the trombone. He also has performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Michigan Opera Theater, the Fort Worth Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, and the Spoleto, Italy Festival Orchestra. A respected chamber musician, Jackson has performed with the Galliard Brass, the Music of the Baroque, and the Brass Band of Battle Creek.
Professor Jackson recently served as an adjudicator for the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the National Young Artist Competition. He has also served as a panelist for the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Professor Jackson is Associate Professor of Trombone at the University of Michigan. He also has been a faculty member at Baylor University, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Toledo. He is a member of the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and of Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project. In the summers, he teaches and performs at the Hot Springs Music Festival and the Idyllwild Arts Festival. He is a Conn-Selmer artist and clinician.
SlideShow Trombone Choir - SlideShow is a unique ensemble whose members come from the fields of education (band directors, private teachers, math teacher/coach, college teacher, high school students), computer technology, sheet music sales, banking, and professional musician. From these varied fields and individual backgrounds, we are able to perform a diversity of styles and types of music that include classical, jazz, Dixieland, Latin, symphonic, commercial, opera recording, etc. The full group numbers approximately 20 players that rehearse twice a month. Within the group are composers and arrangers who provide a lot of the repertoire performed.
Under the direction of Jon Bohls, SlideShow has made many metroplex appearances, such as churches, the Dallas Public Library, as well as having performed the Star Spangled Banner for the Texas Rangers. We have performed concerts at Eastfield College, Texas A & M University – Commerce, University of Texas, Texas Tech University, and Southern Methodist University. John Kitzman, Principle Trombone of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Ron Barron, Principle Trombone of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Blair Bollinger, Bass Trombone of The Philadelphia Orchestra, have been featured soloists with the ensemble. All the members of SlideShow share a love of music, the trombone, and all that that encompasses.
Jeff Hodge - Jeffrey S. Hodge is a native of Mabank, TX. Jeff graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Music from Texas A&M University-Commerce in 2002, and his Master of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Arkansas in 2007. Since 1995, Mr. Hodge has taught drumlines all across Texas and Arkansas. In 2006 he taught the University of Arkansas Drumline. Mr. Hodge is currently an Adjunct Instructor of Percussion at Texas Christian University, where he instructs the TCU Drumline.
Elvia Puccinelli - Pianist Elvia L. Puccinelli is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Texas College of Music, where she has served on the faculty since 2004 as vocal coach and professor of collaborative piano. A dedicated educator in the field of collaborative arts and a specialist in vocal literature, she has held previous appointments with Baylor University and the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California. She has been a clinician or guest teacher at universities throughout the country, including holding a residency at the University of Southern California. Many of her former students have won positions with prestigious training programs, are now employed at houses such as Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Opera Utah, or are on staff or faculty at universities throughout the country.
Alongside her teaching, Dr. Puccinelli is active as a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and chamber musician. She has appeared in song and chamber music recitals at venues from Los Angeles to New York City, and throughout Europe. A frequent presenter at a number of national and international conferences and congresses, her broad professional experience embraces such diverse performance events as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Chamber Concert Series, Placido Domingo's Operalia Competition, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the National Opera Association Competition and regional and national NATS conventions. She has appeared in recital with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Also an accomplished organist and harpsichordist, Dr. Puccinelli enjoys a wide variety of repertoire in her collaborations, from Baroque to twenty-first century literature.
An alumna of San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, Dr. Puccinelli spends her summers coaching professional and aspiring singers at the AIMS program in Graz, Austria and at the OperaWorks program in Los Angeles. She was twice invited to serve as rehearsal pianist for Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Dr. Puccinelli, who holds a Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California, has a special interest in language: she also holds an undergraduate degree in French, and has served as language consultant for Martha Gerhart’s series Italian Song Texts from the 17th through the 20th Centuries for Leyerle Press. A published author on topics of song literature and collaborative piano techniques, Dr. Puccinelli completed her piano and collaborative studies under Alan L. Smith, with additional studies at the Music Academy of the West, with Gwendolyn Koldofsky.
Daniel Washington - Baritone Daniel Washington enjoys a career that brings him to the world’s major opera houses and concert stages, pairing him with such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink and Charles Dutoit. His "rich, resonant voice and well shaped phrases were the highlight of the evening," opined the Palm Beach Daily News. "It was compelling singing that set the stage for the most emotional part of the production."
During the 2007/08 season, Washington was heard in one of the main staples of his repertoire, Porgy and Bess, at the Fondazione Teatro Massimo, with the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra, the Helena Symphony and, most importantly, in June 2008 on tour with Opéra Comique and stops in Paris, Caen and Luxembourg. In 2009, he sings the title role with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Norway.
Among Washington’s recent highlights figure concert versions of Porgy and Bess with the Berlin Philharmonic under Rattle, Montreal Symphony under Dutoit, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Pops. He has also portrayed Wolfram in Tannhäuser at the Palm Beach Opera and Balthazar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, directed by the composer.
Overseas, he has appeared in concert with the Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony, the Bayerische Rundfunk, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich. As a recitalist, he has appeared in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Spoleto Festival USA.
Highlights of his operatic career include his Royal Opera Covent Garden debut in Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Bernard Haitink, and his debut as Porgy at La Fenice in the highly acclaimed production of Porgy and Bess directed by Götz Friedrich. He also created the role of Steven Biko in the world premiere of the opera Biko for the Royal Opera’s Garden Venture Project. Other opera engagements include Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida at the Stadttheater Saarbrücken, Jochanaan in Strauss’ Salome at the Teatro Massimo (Palermo), Marcello in La Bohème at the Hamburg Staatsoper, Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, the title role in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the Stadttheater Luzern and the title roles in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Stadttheater Hof in Germany.
Daniel Washington has won many awards, including the First Prize in the International Voice Competition of Toulouse and the First Prize in the International Competition of Lyric Singing in Verviers. He also won the Bad Hersfeld Opera Prize in recognition of his excellence in performing the role of Jokanaan in Strauss’ Salome. His recordings include the Baritone Solo in Appalachia by Delius, Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Tarquinio in Respighi’s Lucretia.