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Upper Midwest Trombone Summit
Concert
Sunday, October 21, 2007, 5:00 p.m.
Gantner Concert Hall, Haas Fine Arts Center
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Admission Free
UW-Eau Claire Trombone Ensemble, Phil Ostrander, director
University of Minnesota Trombone Ensemble, Tom Ashworth, director
Lawrence University Trombone Ensemble, Nick Keelan, director
and Guest Artist Mark Fisher, Trombone
- Event Schedule
- About the Trombone Summit
- Ensemble Directors
- Guest Artist Mark Fisher, Trombone
- Directions to Haas Fine Arts Center
Event Schedule
8:45-9:30 AM - Registration, coffee and refreshments (Haas Lobby)
9:30-10:00 AM - Warm-up (Gantner Concert Hall)
10:00-10:45 AM
- High School Ensemble Rehearsal (HFA 143) to 11:20 AM
- Select Ensemble Rehearsal (HFA 139)
- Reading Session: Trombone Ensemble Music (Gantner Concert Hall)
10:45-12:00 PM - Orchestral Excerpts Class with Mark Fisher (Phillips Recital Hall)
12:00-1:00 PM - Lunch
1:00-2:50 PM - Recital and Masterclass with Mark Fisher (Phillips Recital Hall)
3:00-3:50 PM
- High School Ensemble Rehearsal (HFA143) start at 2:30 PM
- Break Out Small Group Sessions: Phil Ostrander, T. Ashworth, Nick Keelan, John Tranter
4:00-4:40 PM - Massed Trombone Ensemble Rehearsal (Haas Room 139)
4:40-5:00 PM - Change for concert if needed (HFA 130 and 135)
4:45-5:00 PM - High School Ensemble Performance (Haas Lobby)
5:00 PM Concert (Gantner Concert Hall) - Green Room (HFA 139)
Thanks for being here!!
About the Trombone Summit
Trombonists and Trombone Fans:
Sunday, October 21st will mark the second Upper Midwest Trombone Summit, held at the Haas Fine Arts Center on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The event will feature trombone ensembles from UW-Eau Claire (Phil Ostrander, director), University of Minnesota (Tom Ashworth, director) and Lawrence University (Nick Keelan, director) in a 5:00 PM concert at Gantner Concert Hall in Eau Claire with headliner soloist Mark Fisher from DePaul University. The event will conclude with a short massed trombone ensemble performance.
Events will start with morning rehearsals and a recital/masterclass by Mark Fisher at 1:00 PM. The high school ensemble will perform just prior to the 5:00 PM concert. If you or your students would be interested in participating in this event, please contact Phil Ostrander at the following email address: ostranpa@uwec.edu. High school players who attend the 4:00 PM session are also encouraged to perform with the concluding massed trombone ensemble.
If you wish to perform as part of the final massed trombone ensemble, you are certainly welcome! There are two requirements! First, contact Phil Ostrander at the above email address and second, come to a brief rehearsal before the concert at 4 PM in Haas Fine Arts Center Room 139 (Band Room). The concert is free, although donations will certainly be accepted to offset event costs.
Ensemble Directors
Phillip Ostrander, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Phil Ostrander is Assistant Professor of Trombone at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he conducts the Symphony Band and teaches private trombone, trombone ensemble and brass techniques. Prior to his work at Eau Claire, he held a faculty position in New York at SUNY Geneseo teaching trombone and jazz studies. Dr. Ostrander completed his doctoral studies in trombone performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Dr. John Marcellus. Dr. Ostrander received master's degrees in both trombone and wind conducting from the New England Conservatory, as well as a bachelor's and Performer's Certificate from Eastman. From 1999 to 2001, he taught trombone and conducted the wind ensemble at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. While in Kansas, Dr. Ostrander conducted the 250 member Kansas Lions Band. In the summer of 2001, he was wind ensemble director at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine. He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the popular chamber group Rhythm and Brass. Currently, he is a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee under Michael Stern. Dr. Ostrander has recently been named Principal Trombone of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. An accomplished jazz trombonist, Dr. Ostrander has collaborated with jazz artists Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi and Rich Beirach. He has recorded on Sony Classical with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Naxos with the IRIS Orchestra.
Thomas Ashworth, University of Minnesota
Tom Ashworth joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1990. As the Professor of Trombone and Euphonium, his teaching studio includes undergraduate, masters and doctoral students. He is the coordinator of brass instruments for the School of Music, and also directs the Low Brass Choir and coaches chamber ensembles. His students have enjoyed success as public school and university educators, orchestral and military ensemble musicians and as freelance performers and teachers. Ashworth is a former member of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and taught trombone and jazz improvisation at the University of Kansas from 1987 to 1990.
As the featured trombonist (alto, tenor and bass) with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he has recorded CDs for Teldec, Atlantic, Decca and EMI, and has performed with the SPCO in New York, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition, Ashworth has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago-based Music of the Baroque. He has toured with the world-renowned Summit Brass and has also performed on trombone and euphonium at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming and at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina.
In addition to numerous SPCO CDs, Ashworth can be heard on recordings by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, the Summit Hill Brass, the Lou Fischer Big Band and Symphonia, a professional tuba-euphonium ensemble. He recorded a collection of contest solo pieces for trombone on Summit Records. Ashworth can also be heard playing lead and solo trombone on several recordings with the North Texas State University One O'Clock Lab Band.
From July 1994 to August 1995 Ashworth was the Lecturer in Trombone at the Canberra (Australia) School of Music. He performed with the orchestras of Sydney, Tasmania, and Canberra and joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for their 1995 European tour
As a freelance commercial musician, Ashworth has performed with numerous artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, The Temptations, Doc Severinsen, Bobby McFerrin and Al Jarreau. He has recorded music for radio and TV jingles, CDs and movies, and has extensive experience playing Broadway shows.
Ashworth has appeared on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," Bill McGlaughlin's "Saint Paul Sunday Live," and performed with the SPCO on their National Public Radio broadcast of the premier of Garrison Keillor's opera, "Mr. And Mrs. Olsen." Ashworth has been on the faculty of numerous international brass conferences, and has appeared as a clinician, soloist and adjudicator throughout the USA, and in Australia and Europe.
He frequently organizes brass symposia at the University of Minnesota, and served as the Host of the 1994 International Trombone Workshop and the 1998 International Tuba-Euphonium Workshop. Ashworth has also hosted many guest artists and ensembles, including the American Brass Quintet, the St. Louis Brass Quintet, Vinko Globokar, Christian Lindberg, Charlie Vernon, Joseph Alessi, Raymond Premru, Michael Mulcahy, Patrick Sheridan, Gene Pokorny and Edward Kleinhammer.
Ashworth has degrees from California State University-Fresno and North Texas State University. His teachers include Larry Sutherland, Vern Kagarice, John Kitzman and Michael Mulcahy. Ashworth also studied with Swedish trombone soloist Christian Lindberg at the 1992 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Lubeck, Germany and again in July of 1993 in Pitea, Sweden.
Ashworth is a Bach Trombone clinician for the Selmer Company and a Willson euphonium clinician for DEG.
Nick Keelan, Lawrence University
Nicholas Keelan is an associate professor of music who teaches trombone; teaches in the music education department; and conducts the Lawrence University Low Brass Choir.
Mr. Keelan's degrees are from Henderson State University in Arkansas and the University of Northern Colorado. A native of Arkansas, Mr. Keelan taught in the public schools of Texas and Colorado for several years before joining the Lawrence faculty in 1985. In 1988 he was selected as the outstanding young teacher on the Lawrence faculty. Active in several state education organizations, he was president elect of the Colorado Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators, and has served on the board of both the Wisconsin and Colorado state Music Educators Associations.
Mr. Keelan has been a trombone soloist and clinician with numerous school, college, and civic bands and orchestras throughout the United States. As a performer Mr. Keelan has been the principal trombone with the Denver Chamber Orchestra and the Arkansas Symphony and was an active freelance musician in Denver and Dallas. For four years he was lead trombone with the Dallas Jazz Orchestra, playing on their first two albums. He is currently the trombonist with the Lawrence Brass, the Lawrence faculty jazz combo, Extempo, and is the co-leader of the jazz band the Big Band Reunion. He is the founder and former conductor of the Wisconsin Brass Professors Brass Choir. He performs on Benge and King trombones and is a clinician for the United Musical Instrument Company.
Mr. Keelan's current research interests include the use of music technology for production of educational videos of low brass pedagogues and techniques for dealing with performance anxiety. He has recieved numerous research grants in these areas.
Guest Artist
Mark Fisher, DePaul University
As performing artist and teacher, Mark Fisher has established himself as one of the most versatile brass musicians in the world. Assistant principal/second trombonist and bass trumpet with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and principal trombone of the Santa Fe Opera, Fisher is also a member of Chicago’s Asbury Brass Quintet. He has performed with virtually every leading musical ensemble in Chicago and served as a guest with the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, San Francisco and St. Louis.
Currently instructor of trombone at DePaul University in Chicago, Fisher has also held teaching positions at the University of Michigan, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University and the Banff International Festival. He has presented recitals and masterclasses throughout the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Fisher is an honors graduate of both the University of Northern Iowa (BME, 1983) and the New England Conservatory of Music (MM, 1985). His major teachers during that period were Fritz Kaenig at UNI and John Swallow at NEC. Fisher continued study with Chicago Symphony members both past and present.
Directions to Haas Fine Arts Center
From Hwy. 53 North or South :
Exit Hwy. 53 onto Clairemont Ave. (Hwy. 12) and go West. Turn left on Patton St. Take a quick right onto Lexington Blvd. Turn right on State St. (go down the hill). Turn left on Summit Ave. The Haas Fine Arts Center will be on your left immediately after the bridge.
From I-94 from the West :
Exit I-94 at Hwy. 37 (exit #65) and turn right. At the first stoplight, turn right onto Hamilton Ave. (by US Bank). Turn left on State St. Turn left on Summit Ave. The Haas Fine Arts Center will be on your left immediately after the bridge.
From I-94 from the East :
Exit I-94 at Hwy. 93 (exit #68) and turn right. Turn left at Golf Rd. and follow for 1.8 miles. Turn right on State St. Turn left on Summit Ave. The Haas Fine Arts Center will be on your left immediately after the bridge.
