News Stories

The University of Texas Trombone Choir is heading to Switzerland this spring thanks to a Texas Global Career Launch Grant. Ten students along with the studio’s director and Professor of Trombone, Nathaniel Brickens, will visit the country for a six-week residency beginning in May. The group will work closely with members of the Zurich Opera and the Zurich Ton Halle Orchestras, including the highly acclaimed Zurich Opera Orchestra’s Solo Trombonist David Garcia and the Ton Halle Orchestra’s Bass Trombonist Bill Thomas.

Associate Professor Of Oboe Andrew Parker was featured recently by a local news outlet in Davenport Iowa for his ties with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Parker makes the trip several times each year to play with the orchestra, and performed his first solo recital recently with Pianist Marian Lee. 

Parker, who began piano lessons at age five before picking up the oboe in fourth grade, said he was drawn to the instrument because his music teacher said it was the hardest to play.

“I’ve just always had a personality that’s drawn to a challenge,” Parker told Quad City News. “To this day, I believe something sort of providential happened because the oboe just fits me so perfectly. I didn’t know that when I was in fourth grade — I didn’t know what it would entail, anything about it, really. It was a purely instinctual thing, but now looking back, it’s like, yeah, I was called back to that instrument in a way.” 

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The University of Texas Trombone Choir wrapped up the semester with an impromptu concert at the alumni center. They spread Christmas cheer with a number of classics, including Feliz Navidad, Winter Wonderland and We Three Kings. "I feel like this is a perfect way to wrap things up," said D.M.A Trombone student Jared Dickerson, who played trombone and conducted a number of tunes during the concert. "We had a lot of serious concerts during the year, which is great to be back in the concert hall, but this is also part of the live music, just super casual playing for people."

The Hispanic Caribbean Ensemble played their final concert of the semester recently outside a local market in Central Austin. The group performed a number of acoustic and electrified dance pieces in a casual setting for a public crowd. They played along with the Butler School's Tex-Mex Conjunto and Middle Eastern Ensemble for a comprehensive showing of the school's world music groups.

"The best part of the concert was when we saw all these people towards the last couple of tunes come up into the front and start dancing and moving around," said J.A. Strub, a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology who sang vocals and played a variety of instruments during the concert. "We saw interactions from people of all different generations."