January 2007 Journal
Greetings to ITA members worldwide!
As your new president, I am both honored by being
entrusted with this position by the membership and
equally awed by the many tasks to be accomplished. First,
let me welcome several new members to the ITA Board, ITA
Advisory Board and the Council of Past Presidents. Joining
the ITA Board this year are First Vice President/President-
Elect Don Lucas, Second Vice President Albert Zuijderduin,
Secretary Brett Baker and Board Member Joao Luiz Areias
from whom great things are expected. Ron Barron, Richard
Erb, Matt Guilford, Conrad Herwig, Marta Hofacre and Mark
Thompson have graciously agreed to serve as members of
our Board of Advisors; their advice and wise counsel will be
greatly welcome. Last, but hardly least, Denis Wick is now
chair of the Council of Past Presidents while he continues to
serve on the ITA Board as immediate past president where
his astute observations and sound advice will continue to
help guide our organization.
The ITA is a solid 5000-member-strong organization
that currently services its members through a world-class
journal, many and varied competitions for our student and
young professional trombonists and other important
activities. However, we live in a time when acoustical
instruments are in a precarious position in the art of music.
It is imperative that ITA grow bigger and stronger so that it
can afford to support important projects and promote the
trombone in more prominent ways.
An excellent example of an extremely worthy project
that ITA was unable to assist financially was the Christian
Lindberg/Charles Vernon Chick? a? Bone Checkout for bass
trombone and orchestra that was premiered on 28
September 2006, and for which Lindberg, Vernon, and the
Chicago Symphony should be greatly lauded. The
attention that the trombone received through the
magnificent article in the New York Times is exactly what is
required to bring much needed attention to our instrument.
The reason for ITA?s lack of financial support is due to a
membership that is too small to produce sufficient income
over and above normal operating expenses. The ITA Board
wanted in every way to help underwrite this undertaking,
but to do so would have financially endangered the
continued operation of the organization.
Organizations such as the International Association of
Jazz Educators (IAJE) and the Percussion Arts Society (PAS),
both with memberships into five figures are able to launch
projects that are currently fiscally out of reach for smaller
organizations such as ITA. The attendance at their annual
meetings is measured in the thousands, not the hundreds.
Due to their large size, they are able to generate significant
income from these annual meetings and also from lucrative
corporate sponsorships. ITA annual meetings are fortunate
to break even and corporations are not interested in
sponsoring ITA and many other smaller associations due to a
too small potential marketplace for their products. Only
growth in membership can overcome this problem.
As ITA president, I am dedicating my term to enlarging
our membership. I am already scheduled to meet the officers
of trombone organizations in the United Kingdom, Brazil, the
Netherlands, Scandinavia, Argentina, and Australia. With the
help of other board members I am hoping to add China, the
Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Korea,
and other countries to the list. The costs for these trips will
be covered by me and will not come from the ITA budget. It
is my goal to interest these associations in becoming more
active in ITA with the goal of becoming a unified
organization for the support and promotion of the trombone.
This is not something that will be accomplished quickly, but
if we are to improve the trombone?s position in the musical
world, it will only happen by a united effort. I ask all
individual members and national associations to approach
this with an open mind and a willingness to compromise for
the good of the whole.
Many of you are already aware that the 2007 ITF in
Chengdu, China has had to be postponed due to problems
that need more time to resolve. In its place, a series of
smaller ITF events will be held in Brazil, Rotterdam, Las
Vegas, and Australia. Details of these events are available
through this journal and the ITA website. We believe that
you will find these events quite interesting and expect greater
performance participation by attendees. I hope to see you
there, as I will be attending all four events.
Board member Jiggs Whigham has held a very
successful first TAPAS (Trombone Artists Performing for
Amateurs and Students) event. The board strongly believes
that staging such events will benefit trombone students and
amateurs performance-wise and also encourage many of
them to join ITA. We are asking all members to contribute
one day a year of their time to appear at one of these
clinics. With each of you donating one day to the cause,
we will help a lot of student and amateur trombonists,
improve the image of ITA, and gain new members. Please
contact Jiggs at jiggs@jiggswhigham.com and let him
know when you are available.
I hope all of you are enjoying a successful music season
and are doing your part to promote our instrument. Looking
forward to seeing many of you at the ITF events.
Ken Hanlon
ITA President
