Trombone Summit  

Guest Artist

James Miller, Trombone

JAMES MILLER is the Associate Principal Trombone with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a position he has held since 1999. His duties include performing on alto, tenor, and bass trombone; tenor tuba; and bass trumpet. His previous orchestral experience includes the North Carolina Symphony, the Long Island Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. Miller earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Per Brevig.
 
His playing experience includes performances with the Silk Road Ensemble, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Ensemble ST-X, the Michael Bublé Big Band, and a variety of jazz, rock, ska, and Latin ensembles. He has been a participant in the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Ojai Music Festival as well as being featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series. As a composer, he has had world premieres in New York’s Lincoln Center and continues to perform his own works in solo performances throughout the country. He serves on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California Los Angeles.
 
Miller is a Conn/Selmer clinician and has a CD entitled from coast to coast on All Barks Dog records.

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.

Mike Dugan, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

Dr. Michael Dugan, a native of St. Charles, Illinois, has recently been appointed Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Dr. Dugan teaches applied trombone, directs the Trombone Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble II, and plays in the Whitewater Brass Quintet.

In addition to his teaching duties, Dugan is an active freelance artist in the Upper Midwest. Recent engagements include the Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as many fine regional orchestras throughout Wisconsin and Iowa. Other recent performances include the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble, Thunder Bay (Ontario) Symphony, Elvis Costello, Audra McDonald, Doc Severinsen, Johnny Mathis, Irish Tenors, and The Four Tops in various capacities. During the summer of 2010, Dugan was faculty member at the 2010 International Trombone Festival at the University of Texas at Austin.

From 2001-2005, Michael was a member of the United States Air Force Band of Liberty. During his tenure with the Band of Liberty, Michael was the featured trombone soloist with the Concert Band, and the Colonial Brass Quintet. His other performance assignments included the Band of Liberty Jazz Ambassadors and Ceremonial Band.

Dugan’s formal education includes a DMA from the University of Minnesota, where he also holds a Master of Music degree. Prior to his study with Tom Ashworth at the University of Minnesota, Dugan received his undergraduate degree from De Paul University in Chicago, where he studied with Mark Fisher, Charles Vernon and Edward Kocher. Other pedagogical influences include Ed Zadrozny, Kari Sundstrom and Doug Wright. Dugan is an Edwards performing artist.

Education

B.M. DePaul University; M.M., D.M.A. Univeristy of Minnesota

Tom 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.

Rick Gaynor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls

Rick Gaynor. instructor of Trombone/Euphonium, also directs UWRF Brass Ensemble, Trombone Choir, and teaches Music Appreciation at UW-River Falls. He received his degree in Music Performance from UW-River Falls where he studied with James Gauthier and David Herring. He received his Master’s degree in Trombone Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music where his teachers included Cleveland Orchestra trombonists Ed Anderson and Tom Klaber. He also spent a summer participating in the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado where he studied with Per Brevig of the Metropolitan Opera and the Juliard School (New York City.)

Mr. Gaynor is an active performer in the Twin Cities area. He has performed hundreds of concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (two of this country’s leading ensembles.) He has performed in top Broadway musicals, including nearly 150 performances of "Phantom of the Opera".

Mr. Gaynor has performed under some of the world’s leading conductors including: Edo de Waart, Roger Norington, Mark Wigglesworth, Henry Charles Smith, Eiji Oue, David Zinman, Robert Shaw, Roberto Abbado, Helmut Rilling, Richard Bonynge, Emmanuel Plassin, Marco Quidarini, Daniel Harding, Hans Vonk, Christopher Hogwood, Andreas Delfs, Hugh Wolff, and Bobby McFerrin.

Mr. Gaynor has performed with some of the world’s leading musicians and entertainers including; Luciano Pavarotti, the Three Tenors, Charlotte Church, The Temptations, Moody Blues, the Dallas Brass and The Canadian Brass. He has been a Featured Soloist with the UW-River Falls Wind Ensemble, The Phipps Center Orchestra, many area high school bands, the International Trombone Association Conference and a Clinician with the International Tuba/Euphonium Conference.

Mr. Gaynor can be heard on numerous recordings including the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble’s (I.C.E.) "I Dig", Innova 548. He has performed at some of the world’s leading venues including: London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, as a part of the London Jazz Festival; and New York’s Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra.

In the tradition of Emory Remington’s Eastman Trombone Choir, I encourage participation in the UW-River Falls Trombone Choir. We perform on Brass Concerts and other special occasions.

Nat Dickey, Concordia-Moorhead

Nathaniel H. Dickey serves on the Concordia College faculty as assistant professor of music, teaching low brass and conducting the Concordia Symphonic Band and the Cobber Athletic Band. As a professional trombonist, he currently holds the positions of principal trombone with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, lead trombone with the Jazz Arts Group of Fargo-Moorhead, and trombone with the Post-Traumatic Funk Syndrome. He has performed with the IRIS Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Vermont Symphony, and Boston Ballet, among other orchestras. He was a founding member of the award-winning Orion Trombone Quartet and the Brass Mosaic, which performed a recital in Carnegie Hall. As a soloist, Dickey has performed with numerous ensembles, including the Concordia College Band, the Concordia College Orchestra, and the Concordia College Jazz Ensemble. He has recorded with the Paramount Brass and Boston Symphony principal trombonist Ron Barron. As a conductor, Dickey  has commissioned and premiered works from noted composers, such as Elliott Schwartz, Mark Camphouse, Carol Barnett, Mary Ellen Childs, and Allen Feinstein. With the Cobber Symphonic Band, he has initiated the annual Composers Concert series, featuring contemporary music, including the work of student composers. Dickey previously served as assistant director of bands at Harvard University.  Dickey holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory (B.A. mathematics, B.M. music performance), Rice University (M.M. music performance), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A. music).