The Bemidji State University-led Trombone Choir, which includes BSU faculty and students and members of the Bemidji community, presents its spring concert April 10.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Thompson Recital Hall of BSU’s Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex. Admission is free.
The 15-member Trombone Choir includes eight BSU students, including students with music majors and minors and non-music students and seven members of the Bemidji community.
The concert will feature music for trombone choir, as well as small ensembles of BSU students.
Mike Newton, a senior music education major from Bemidji, and Levi Espeseth, a senior music major from Merrifield, Minn., will perform Eric Ewazen’s “Pastorale,” accompanied by Lindsay Marketon, a senior music education and music major from Howard Lake, Minn.
Noah Harstad, a junior music education major from Fertile, Minn., Tim Roehrich, a junior music education major from Baxter, Minn., and Espeseth will perform Ralph Sauer’s arrangement of ”Sonata No. 4″ by Giovanni Pergolesi.
The performance also will feature music composed by Richard Wagner, Enrique Crespo and others.
The Trombone Choir is co-directed by Curtis Olson and Ryan Webber, both adjunct instructors of trombone and low brass at BSU. The pair brought BSU’s Trombone Choir back in the fall of 2017 after the ensemble had been on a brief hiatus.
Olson is a BSU alumnus who has returned to his alma mater after a 37-year teaching career at Michigan State University, where he is now a professor emeritus. He taught trombone at Michigan State from 1976-2001, when he was appointed associate dean of the College of Music, a position he held until he retired in 2013 and returned to Bemidji. He has performed with a variety of symphony orchestras and has won numerous awards as a trombone instructor.
Webber joined the BSU faculty in 2017. He is an orchestral musician and conductor and is currently pit orchestra director for the Park Rapids-based Northern Light Opera Company. He has a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of California, Irvine and a master’s degree in music from the University of Kansas.
Contact
- Curtis Olson, adjunct instructor of trombone and low brass, Bemidji State University; (218) 755-2700, curtis.olson@bemidjistate.edu
- Ryan Webber, adjunct instructor of trombone and low brass, Bemidji State University; [Ryan.Webber@bemidjistate.edu]
Bemidji State University, located amid the lakes and forests of northern Minnesota, occupies a wooded campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. Enrolling more than 5,100 students, Bemidji State offers more than 80 undergraduate majors and eight graduate degrees encompassing arts, sciences and select professional programs. BSU is a member of the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities and has a faculty and staff of more than 550. The university’s Shared Fundamental Values include environmental stewardship, civic engagement and international and multicultural understanding.
2018-B-L-092