Minneapolis Trombone Choir was started in 1974 as a meeting place for trombonists to meet other players, share ideas, and play music. It has been going strong ever since. Jim ten Bensel, director and one of the founding members of this group, continues to lead the choir. They have performed at Lake Harriet Bandshell, and the State Fair Grounds over the Fourth of July, as well as the International Trombone Association workshop held at the University of Minnesota in 1994. Their annual concerts include music ranging from classical to jazz, and the members come from all walks of life. This year they celebrate their 46th year of concerts.

Membership of the Trombone Choir has gone up over the decades and has reached up to 45 members. There have always been trombones, along with euphoniums and tubas, plus visiting choirs at their concerts. The current choir has 40 members, and about half of the choir will perform at Twin Cities Trombone Day 2019.

Click here to follow the Minneapolis Trombone Choir on Facebook, and check out this great article from Classical MPR about the choir, their 2019 concert and their appearance at Trombone Day!

John Fedchock’s illustrious career in jazz has spanned over three decades. Since his emergence on the scene in 1980, Fedchock has established himself as a world-class trombone soloist, a heralded bandleader, and a Grammy-nominated arranger. An in-demand performer and writer in New York City, his multifaceted talents have led him to become one of NYC’s premier jazz artists. His critically acclaimed John Fedchock New York Big Band has become a marquee group, showcasing Fedchock’s trombone and arranging as well as the band’s all-star soloists. The JFNYBB’s five CDs on the MAMA and Reservoir Music labels have all received high praise from critics and extraordinary success on national jazz radio charts. The early success of the band resulted in Fedchock’s name appearing in DOWNBEAT’s Readers Poll under the categories of Trombone, Arranger and Big Band, simultaneously for several consecutive years. In recognition of his formidable arranging skills, Fedchock is a two-time GRAMMY Award nominee for “Best Instrumental Arrangement”. The JFNYBB’s recordings have appeared in jazz radio’s Top Ten, and the New York Times has applauded the band’s “Cheerful Syncopation, Served With Spit-and-Polish Precision.” Small group projects with his quartet and NY Sextet showcase A-list sidemen along with Fedchock’s “incomparable trombone playing, which seems to have no limit, technically or musically” (JazzReview.com).

Fedchock began his career as a jazz trombonist when he joined the legendary Woody Herman Orchestra in 1980. He toured with Woody’s “Thundering Herd” for seven years, during which time he was musical director and a featured soloist. He served as musical coordinator and chief arranger in the production of Herman’s last two Grammy Award nominated albums “50th Anniversary Tour” and “Woody’s Gold Star”, and received accolades from jazz journalists worldwide. Famed jazz critic Leonard Feather called him the “unsung hero” of Woody’s “50th Anniversary Tour” album and Woody said of Fedchock, “He’s my right hand man. Everything I ask of John he accomplishes, and I ask a lot. He’s a major talent.” DOWNBEAT magazine stated that, “it was the young blood of musicians like Fedchock that helped keep Woody Herman’s last years musically healthy and growing”. Fedchock still maintains a close association with the Herman orchestra, performing with the group on occasion and continuing to add his own compositions and arrangements to the band’s library.

Fedchock has toured with T.S. Monk, Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, Louie Bellson Big Band, Bob Belden Ensemble, Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and has performed at jazz festivals and concert halls around the world. As a solo artist, he appears throughout the United States and abroad performing as guest trombonist/composer/conductor. To add to his already diverse list of multiple talents, Fedchock is also a producer of note, and has lent his studio expertise to several recent recording projects.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Fedchock is a graduate of The Ohio State University with degrees in Music Education and Jazz Studies. He also holds a master’s degree in Jazz Studies And Contemporary Media from the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He is an in-demand clinician, and conducts seminars and workshops at colleges and universities across the country. His compositions and arrangements are published by Jazzlines Publications, Kendor Music Inc, and Walrus Music Publishing. John Fedchock is a trombone artist for XO Professional Brass and plays XO trombones exclusively. His collaboration with the prominent instrument company to create the XO1632 trombone has proven to be an overwhelming success in both innovative design and industry popularity.

John Fedchock’s appearance at Twin Cities Trombone Day is sponsored by Jupiter / XO Brass.

Mr. Fedchock will also be performing in the Twin Cities at Jazz Central Studios on April 5th, and at Crooners Lounge on the evening on April 6th. Learn more at johnfedchock.com.

The University of Minnesota Trombone Choir was founded in 1990 by UM Trombone Professor Tom Ashworth. The Choir is honored to be working with Mr. Henry Charles Smith III, and has enjoyed collaborating with Mr. Smith on several performances and recordings in past years.

The Choir has performed at numerous international, national and regional symposia and also presents outreach concerts at Twin Cities public schools and senior centers. Former members of the Choir are currently enjoying careers as public school music educators, freelance performers and private teachers throughout the nation. Some are professors at universities and colleges including the Univ. of North Texas, Univ. of Nebraska, Univ. of Alabama, Eastern Michigan, Texas-Pan American, Concordia College and UW-Whitewater. Other alumni are members of Washington DC-based premier US military ensembles including the Air Force, Navy and Army Bands, the Airmen of Note and the Army Blues. UM Trombone alumni have also performed with orchestras including the SPCO, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony, Dallas Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, London Philharmonia and the Finnish National Opera.

Professor Ashworth’s performance credits include the SPCO, MN Orch, Dallas Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Summit Brass, Symphonia, Graham Ashton Brass Quintet, North Texas One O’Clock Jazz Lab Band, national touring Broadway shows and the Chicago-based Music of the Baroque. He also performs as a classical and jazz soloist. Ashworth has been on faculty at the International Trombone Festival, American/Eastern Trombone Workshop, Keystone Brass/Rafael Mendez Brass Institute, the Brevard, Grand Tetons and Wintergreen music festivals, as well as MMEA and numerous other state music conventions. Ashworth has hosted and organized brass symposia from the the international to regional levels. Ashworth is a clinician for Bach Trombones and performs on a 42AFG and a Mount Vernon Model 8. He also performs on euphonium, alto trombone and bass trumpet.

Please visit the UM Trombone Studio online at:

• z.umn.edu/trombone
• facebook.com/umgofpherbones

If you are a trombonist interested in auditioning at the University of Minnesota in the future, please contact Prof. Tom Ashworth at 651-983-0865 (cell) or via email at ashwo001@umn.edu.

Trombonist and conductor Henry Charles Smith is one of the best known and most respected classical trombonists of the 20th century As solo trombonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra he played more than 2,000 concerts under Eugene Ormandy, as well as many other of the 20th Century’s greatest conductors; as a trombone and euphonium soloist, as chamber music player, and as writer and editor his recordings and editions are internationally known, including his recording of the Hindemith Trombone Sonata with pianist Glenn Gould and his work with the Philadelphia Brass Quintet which won a Grammy for “Best Classical Record of the Year” in 1969.

While on the conducting staff of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1971-1988 Maestro Smith conducted over 1,000 concerts; in addition he has served as guest conductor with the Detroit, Dallas, and Kansas City Symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the National, San Antonio and Indianapolis Symphonies.
Maestro Smith has served on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music, Indiana University, Temple University, St. Olaf, Luther and Bethel Colleges, and the University of Texas. He is Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University.

Henry Charles Smith is frequently a guest conductor, speaker, clinician and soloist across the United States. He has conducted the Young Artist Orchestra at Tanglewood and was Music Director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp for 16 years. The Maestro spent twelve seasons as Music Director and Conductor of the South Dakota Symphony. In recognition of Maestro Smith’s unparalleled contributions to South Dakota’s appreciation of quality classical and pops music, the 2000-2001 Season of the South Dakota Symphony was officially proclaimed by Governor William J. Janklow as “The Season of Maestro Henry Charles Smith III.”

Dr. Phil Ostrander is Professor of Trombone and Bands at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he conducts the Symphony Band, teaches private trombone, and trombone ensemble. Dr. Ostrander completed his doctoral studies at the Eastman School of Music. 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.

He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the popular chamber groups Rhythm and Brass and the Burning River Brass Ensemble. Currently, he is a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee under Michael Stern and also Principal Trombone of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. He has also performed on Broadway shows in Minneapolis –most recently on Spamalot and the Lion King. An accomplished jazz trombonist, Dr. Ostrander has collaborated with jazz artists Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi and Rich Beirach. He teaches jazz and created the Trombone Workshop at the Shell Lake Arts Camp in northern Wisconsin. He has recorded on Sony Classical with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Naxos with the IRIS Orchestra. Dr. Ostrander is a clinician for the Conn-Selmer Musical Instrument Company.

John Tranter (alto, tenor and bass trombone, euphonium, tuba) has served as an Instructor of Low Brass at the University of Minnesota since Spring 2003, and is an active freelance musician in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. In addition to performing regularly with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Tranter has also performed with the Minnesota Opera, the JazzMN Big Band, and many touring Broadway shows at local venues. He is also serving as solo euphonium with the Sheldon Theatre Brass Band. Outside of Minnesota, he has also performed and/or recorded with Symphonia (America’s first professional tuba-euphonium ensemble), Orquesta Sinfónica de Trujillo (Perú), the Palm Beach Opera, the Kansas City Symphony Brass Quintet, and the American Wind Symphony.

During the 1999-2000 academic year, Mr. Tranter was the trombonist of the Skyline Brass, an ensemble-in-residence at Drake University, Iowa State University, and Grinnell College (funded by the National Endowment for the Arts/Chamber Music America program). Mr. Tranter has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Low Brass at Concordia University-St. Paul and Normandale Community College.

Mr. Tranter currently holds degrees from Florida State University (Master of Music in Trombone Performance) and the University of Kansas (Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance, minor in euphonium). He remains active as a recitalist on all low brass instruments as a guest artist at various universities and festivals, both locally and throughout the Midwest.

Dave Stevens is a graduate of Stillwater High School and the University of Minnesota. His principal teachers were Lawrence Wienman and Max Bonecutter. He also studied in Paris, Chicago, and California. He was a public school music teacher for more than three decades directing high school concert and jazz bands in Austin, Minnesota and Mahtomedi, Minnesota.

His playing career has given him some wonderful opportunities: more than 35 years as a member of the Summit Hill Brass Quintet (including recording 9 CDs), the Minnesota Opera Orchestra and the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra. In addition he has subbed and played extra with the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a freelance performer he has played with orchestras, in the pit for ballets and musical theater, and on stage backing up soloists and groups – from the King Singers to Pavarotti, from Yanni to the Moody Blues.

Tubist Itai Agmon assumed his current position of Principal Tuba of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra in 2015. Prior to his arrival in the U.S, he served in the Israel Defense Forces Band between 2011-2014. Itai had performed with prestigious conductors such as Lahav Shani, Valery Gergiev, David Effron and Vasily Petrenko, with orchestras including the Pacific Music Festival and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also featured as a soloist with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem in 2013.

Itai had graduated with a Bachelor’s in Music Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, under the tutelage of Provost Professor Daniel Perantoni. Currently studying with Steven Campbell of the Minnesota Orchestra, his other previous teachers include Shmuel Adi Hershko of the Israel Philharmonic and Avital Handler of the Israeli Opera. Itai was a prizewinner and finalist for two competitions in the 2016 International Tuba-Euphonium Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was awarded the Indiana University Performer’s Certificate from the IU Brass Faculty. Itai had been supported by the America-Israel Cultural foundation since 2011.

Lauren Husting, trombone, is an established presence in the Minneapolis-St. Paul music scene. She is a founding member of Brass Lassie, a 10-piece traditional folk band boldly combining brass and jazz arrangements with Celtic, Scottish, Irish, and French-Canadian tunes; plays bass trombone in local big band the Adam Meckler Orchestra, and is on roster with the newly formed Twin Cities Symphony. She can also be found freelancing on gigs from classical and chamber to jazz and pop.

Lauren serves as low brass instructor for Hamline University, St. Cloud State University, and Century College. She also teaches in the communities of Chanhassen, Edina, St. Louis Park, and NE Minneapolis. She has been BrassChix‘s Celebrity Trombonist in from 2013 to present. As a pedagogue and performer, she emphasizes natural learning methods- focusing attention on training musical expression and enjoyment, and silencing the technical noise that accompanies traditional brass instruction.

Lauren holds degrees from the University of North Texas and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has studied with such diverse performers and educators as Jan Kagarice, Tony Baker, Vern Kagarice, William Richardson, and Sean Reusch. She is an Edwards Instruments Artist.