The trombone world mourns the passing of John R. Marcellus, a visionary educator, performer, and advocate for our instrument.
A former Principal Trombonist of the National Symphony Orchestra and esteemed professor at the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Marcellus shaped the careers of countless students who went on to excel in music. His artistry and commitment to teaching set a gold standard in trombone performance and pedagogy.
As President of the International Trombone Association (ITA), Dr. Marcellus played a pivotal role in expanding its global reach, fostering collaboration among trombonists worldwide, and championing new music for the instrument. His visionary leadership and tireless advocacy helped solidify the ITA as the preeminent organization for trombonists, creating opportunities for young artists and established professionals alike.
Dr. Marcellus’s legacy lives on through his recordings, his students, and the thriving community he helped build. The ITA, along with the broader musical world, honors his memory and offers heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, and all those who had the privilege of knowing him.
William “Bill” Moyer, trombonist and personnel manager with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 35 years, died in December 2024. He was 95 years old.
Born in 1929, Bill Moyer attended Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where he studied trombone with Arthur Williams and Thomas Cramer. In 1952, Moyer was hired as second trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by music director Charles Munch. Sitting between principal trombonist Jacob Raichman (until 1955) or William Gibson (after 1955), and bass trombonist Kauko “Koko” Kahila, Moyer played thousands of concerts and a staggering number of recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch, Pierre Monteux, and Erich Leinsdorf (over 180), and he recorded over 600 works with the Boston Pops Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fiedler. In January 1964, Bill Moyer was the trombone soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Tuba mirum from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in a Solemn Pontifical High Mass given at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. The service, held in memory of President John F. Kennedy—who was assassinated on November 22, 1963—was broadcast worldwide and seen and heard by over 23 million people.
After fourteen years playing second trombone in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bill Moyer took on the position of personnel manager with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1966 until his retirement in 1987. In 1982, Moyer founded Project STEP (String Training Education Program), a program that was established to provide training for string players from underrepresented communities. Since the establishment of the program, Project STEP graduates have gone on to careers as members of symphony orchestras, teachers, and soloists. Bill Moyer’s commitment to excellence on the trombone, as an orchestra manager, and as mentor to young players shaped three generations of musicians in Boston and around the world.
William “Bill” Moyer performing Tuba Mirum at the Kennedy Memorial Mass, 1964.
The trombone concerto by the Norwegian composer Ørjan Matre was premiered on the 21st of November this year, with Sverre Riise as the trombone soloist. The concerto has the unusual title “…I have said this before…” and is a 21 minutes long piece in 3 movements. It demands a rich palette of sound colors, from both the soloist and the orchestra. The concerto sits firmly in the Scandinavian contemporary tradition, drawing inspiration from solo works for trombone by Bent Sørensen and Arne Nordheim. A study score of the concerto can be found here.
This is not the first time this composer and soloist have collaborated. Sverre Riise released the solo album “Snarks in the Kitchen” in 2015, which includes Matre’s “…since I say it now”* for trombone and piano. The related piece “…But I must have said this before…” for trombone and ensemble is recorded on the album “…But..” with Ensemble Ernst. Matre is not shy about blaming himself for self plagiarism in his titles! The new concerto has a brand new second movement, and the orchestration is expanded from ensemble to full symphony orchestra.
Accomplished composer and soloist
Ørjan Matre was born in 1979 in Bergen, Norway, and received his education at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 1999-2005. His breakthrough composition was “Four Miniatures for Orchestra”, written in 2005. He was the composer in residence of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra from 2006-2008, and was the composer profile of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2012-2013 season. His music has been performed at festivals abroad, such as BBC proms and Darmstadt Ferienkurse. He is the first Norwegian composer since the 1960s to have his music published by Editions Peters.
Sverre Riise has served as principal trombonist of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra since 1997. He has also held positions in the orchestra of the Norwegian Opera and the Malaysia Philharmonic. Riise has been very active in the contemporary music scene, and has performed extensively with Ensemble Ernst and Oslo Sinfonietta. In 2018, Riise accepted the position as Associate Professor of Trombone of the Norwegian Academy of Music, alongside Prof. Jonas Bylund. Their students have already won several prestigious orchestral positions.
“…I have said this before” will have its radio premiere on the 15th of January. It will be available for listening on the website of the Norwegian Radio.
Eyvind Sommerfelt
ITA Online news-coordinator
27.12.2024
*The piece is often mislabeled in track lists of the recording.
The Chicago Symphony has now posted an opening for principal trombone on their website. The orchestra has a long tradition as one of the world’s best. Their recordings of the major symphonic repertoire under the baton of Fritz Reiner, Georg Soltiand others have inspired generations of brass players. The winner will succeed Jay Friedman, who has has served as the orchestra’s Principal Trombonist since 1964.
A rare opportunity
The audition process will determine who will be the first new trombonist of the legendary brass section since Michael Mulcahy was appointed Second Trombonist by Sir Georg Solti in 1989. Associate Principal trombonist James Gilbertson retired from the orchestra in 2011, but his position has remained vacant since. The brass section of the Chicago Symphony has arguably been the most influential brass section in history. Musicians like Dale Clevenger and Adolph Herseth are considered among the all time greatest on their instruments. The research and teaching of former tubist Arnold Jacobs were ground breaking during his lifetime. Jacobs’ ideas have since been passed on to younger generations of teachers and players all over the world by his students.
The low brass section gained a strong reputation on their own, and released a 1971 recording of low brass excerpts. The current members of the CSO low brass notably gave the premier of the Jennifer Higdon “Low Brass Concerto” in 2018, conducted by Riccardo Muti. They are enjoying active careers as arrangers, teachers, soloists and conductors outside the orchestra.
According to the orchestra website, preliminary auditions for the position of principal trombone are held November 4, 6, 9 and 11 this fall. The final round audition will take place in April 2025. The new principal trombonist is expected to be incorporated in September 2025. The retirement of Jay Friedman has not been officially announced.
Another major trombone competition just concluded, with Botond Drahos from Hungary winning the first prize. Drahos also was also victorious in the Porcia competition last year. Tim Oewjan from the Netherlands and Gonçalo Nova from Portugal joined him at the podium.
As is usually in major solo competition, the repertoire was demanding, split into a pre-selection and 4 main rounds in one week. The contestants were also challenged to play several pieces outside the standard repertoire, like a new commision by Nils Wogram, Axel Ruoff’s sonata and Reiche’s 2nd trombone concerto as the only choice for the final round with orchestra. 43 trombonists from all over the world made the trip to Germany to play the first round. 18 of them were advanced to the 2nd round, and 5 to the 3rd round, until the 3 prize winners remained for the final. The repertoire included no pieces written by women, though, while the oboists who also competed in Markneukirchen could choose several. This frequently updated collection by Natalie Mannix could be a good place to look for suitable music for future trombone competitions.
Competition veterans triumph
3 happy finalists of the Markneukirchen competition.
The Hungarian winner, Botond Drahos, currently studies with Prof. Jonas Bylund in Hanover. He has taken part in youth programs of the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and is a member of the prestigious Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.
Tim Oewjan from the Netherlands studied in Amsterdam, and is principal trombonist of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra. He has already won first prizes the he Getzen Ian Bousfield Solo Competition, the ITF Frank Smith competition, the ITF Van Haney competition 2022, the ITF Alto Trombone competition, and has been a finalist of several others.
No less than 7 distinguished trombonists were invited to the jury at this competition: Prof. Henning Wiegräbe, Prof. Matthias Gromer, Prof. Fabrice Millischer, Prof. Louise Pollock, Prof. Ingemar Roos, Prof. Oliver Seifert and Mr. Ko-ichiro Yamamoto. Also in the picture is president Prof. Christian Lampert, French Horn.
The concerto was commisioned by the soloist with a special request: “write something lyrical, nothing avant-garde”. Busk’s motivation was that we already have many fine “avant-garde” trombone concertos, but he felt the repertoire
could use more trombone concertos featuring the more gentle and singing qualities of the instrument. Bo Holten is already well known for his choral works and arrangements of songs, as well as a choral conductor, and took on the task with enthusiasm. The composer says that writing for brass has a lot in common with writing for vocalists. However he appreciated that he did not have to worry about the trombone soloist being covered by the orchestra, and joked that the trombone soloist could be too dominant!
An unusual trombone concerto
All the 3 movements of the concerto are built around the opening statement, but the Danish folk song “Jeg kan se på dine Øjne” also snuck into the composition process. The composer explained that “the melody wanted to join in, and it did, probably more than it should”. The first line of the lyrics is translated to “I can see in your eyes, that you love somebody else”. Subsequently, the concerto ends in sadness, not triumph.
The soloist says the work is a stiff challenge, demanding both stamina and flexibility to rapidly change between dynamics and registers. He particularly embraced the chance to explore the extreme soft dynamics the composer calls for.
Danish National Radio p2 broadcasted the concert live, and you can listen to it here. The concert also includes 2 orchestral pieces which should be well known among trombone players: “Four Sea Interludes” by Benjamin Britten and Tchaikowski’s 5th Symphony.
Swedish jazz trombonist Karin Hammar has been nominated in the category “Jazz of the Year” of Manifest Gala 2024 for her latest album, Opening. The nominated albums were chosen by jury groups of over 150 people in total, all of whom have been active in the Swedish Music industry.
The Manifest Gala is organized by the organisation SOM, Independent Swedish Music Producers. The winner will be announced March 7 2024 in an event celebrating the Swedish Independent music scene. The annual reward in the Jazz category has been given out since 2006, but this is the first time an album featuring jazz trombone is nominated.
Opening was also picked out to be on Ján Graus’ list of “top 10 albums of 2023” by the editors of the Slovak website skjazz.sk.
The Stockholm based artist has a long and career behind her. Her initial fame came in the early 2000s with the group “Sliding Hammers“, with her sister. The group was a tribute to the legendary duo “Jay and Kai”, with Kai Winding and JJ Johnson. In Sweden, she is also known for being in the band of the TV-show Doobioo.
Opening is Hammar’s sixth solo album, following up Strings Attached from 2022. Her personal style as jazz trombonist is heavily featured on this album, which she also produced and composed all the music for.
The orchestra final of the 33rd International Competition City of Porcia, just concluded, with Hungarian trombonist Botond Drahos taking home the first prize. The second prize, audience award and youth jury award went to Tim Ouwejan from the Netherlands, and Roberto de la Guia Martinez from Spain was awarded the third prize.
The Porcia competition is considered one of the major brass competitions in Europe, for young musicians under the age of 30. It is a yearly eventtaking place in Porcia to the north east of Venice in northern Italy. The categories rotate between trumpet, tuba, french horn and trombone.
As is usually the case in internationaly trombone competition, the 3 prize winners had to perform 4 rounds of demanding repertoire, showing the mastery of a variety of musical styles. 47 candidates from all over the world participated in the first round. 11 of them advanced to the semifinal, 4 to the final with piano until only 3 remained in the final with orchestra. Botond Drahos and Roberto de la Guia Martinez chose to perform the trombone concerto by Launy Grøndahl, while Tim Ouwejan chose the trombone concerto by Nino Rota.
Botond Drahos was born in 2003 in Kapusvár, Hungary. Gábor Rozina was his first trombone teacher in his home town. From 2018, he studied at the High School level with Róbert Lugosi, Pál Makovecz and Márk Tóth. Drahos currently studying with Prof. Jonas Bylund in Hanover. He has taken part in youth programs of the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and is a member of the prestigious Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. He has won several competitions in his home country, and earlier this year, he received a special mention at the major Prague Spring competition.
Roberto de la Guia Martinez recently joined the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra as solo trombonist, after occupying the same position in Wuppertahl for one season. He recently went back to his previous employer to perform the Ferdinand David Concertino as soloist. The Spanish trombonist has also enjoyed previous competition success, most notably winning the Michel Becquet competition earlier this year.
If you are curious about how some of the most talented young trombonists of Europe are playing, the streams of the semi final and the final with piano are available on YouTube. The audio and video quality is unfortunately not the best, but the level of musicianship is unmistakable!
There have been several major competitions in Europe lately, but for young trombonists who are eager to challenge themselves, the next opportunity is right around the corner! Registrations for the trombone category of the 2024 Markenukirchen competion are now open!
We invite talented composers to showcase their trombone writing skills in this unique contest. Composers are invited to submit an original trombone octet of 5-7 minutes in length. The winning composition will be announced in April 2024 during International Trombone Week (ITW). Its sheet music will be available to download from the ITA site at no cost for ensembles that wish to perform it during ITW 2024. Trombone ensembles are encouraged to record and share their performances of the winning composition in celebration of International Trombone Week 2024.
The Swede Jan Sandström (1954-) is one of very few composers who have written 3 major trombone concertos. His first one, TheMotorbike Concerto from 1989 was incredibly succesful, and it has been performed over 700 times all over the world. His Trombone Concerto No. 2, Don Quixote was premiered in 1994. He has also written several shorter pieces for trombone, including scaled down versions and revisions of his 2 first concertos. Sång till Lotta from 1990 has been a world wide recital favourite for students and professional trombonists alike. It is recommended to also explore his lesser known pieces, such as A Christian Song and Bompibone BrassBitt.
Sandström’s 3rd trombone concerto is a tribute to the 37 year long close friendship between the composer and the trombone soloist. The subtitle Les accords d’Eze, refers to a mountain village north of Nice in France, which Sandström and Lindberg visited together in the early 1990s. It has 5 movements, and is a virtuosic but less extroverted concerto than his previous two.
The concerto received a standing ovation in the Gothenburg Concert hall on the premiere on the 4th of Octobre 2023. The piece was commissioned by the record company European Gramophone, which Christian Lindberg co-founded in 2019.
