Trombone

I originally came across Frank Gulino’s music a few years ago at one of the International Trombone Festivals. I quickly fell in love with his musical voice and compositional style. After switching to bass trombone a few years ago, I realized quickly how small the bass trombone solo repertoire truly is. There are staples in the repertoire, but due to the nature of a small pool of repertoire choices, I wanted to take this opportunity to form a consortium and collaborate with Frank. My hope is this new piece will become a modern staple of the repertoire. - Austin Pancner

Commission:

Bass Trombone and Piano

Duration - ca. 8-10 minutes

Difficulty - Graduate student/Professional

Cost - $175 per participant, limited to 30 participants. 

Lead Commissioner and Consortium Organizer - Austin Pancner

Anticipated Completion - September 1, 2021

Participation Deadline -  April 1, 2021

Commission Benefits:

Performance exclusivity from September 1, 2021 to September, 2022

Bound score and bound solo part inscribed with the name and institution of each participant.

To hear Frank Gulino's first Trombone Sonata, see sound clip above or visit link.

8 Trombones (2 4-part choirs)

Commissioned by Dr. Nathan Siler and the Eastern Kentucky Trombone Society

A Sequel to "The Deputy" (2013) CM2277

In 2018, Spanish bass and contrabass trombonist Javier Colomer will record a new album that includes works for trombone and organ as well as for unaccompanied bass and contrabass trombones. The music on this disc spans four centuries, from Palestrina and Gabrielli through Handel, Schubert, and Faure, among others. The newest piece on the album – a work for unaccompanied contrabass trombone by American composer Frank Gulino – had not been completed at the time

Javier Colomer is an internationally renowned bass and contrabass trombone soloist and teacher who has given recitals and master classes across the globe for more than 25 years. During that time, Javier has performed with orchestras and wind bands both as an ensemble musician and concerto soloist, and presented masterclasses to over a thousand students from some of the world's leading conservatories and universities. He is a past member of the ITA Board of Advisors and also authored “The World of The Contrabass Trombone,” the first comprehensive method book for that instrument. Javier's advocacy of the contrabass trombone as a solo instrument is a natural extension of his experience as a performer and pedagogue, and he continues to regularly commission and premiere new works for the bass and contrabass trombones. Please visit www.javicolomer.com to learn more.

This duet book comes in both a low and high key and can be played by various combinations of low brass instruments.

This book seeks to provide low brass players with useful, enjoyable materials that can be used effectively as both pedagogical tools and performance pieces. By incorporating a variety of keys, articulations, meters, phrase structures, and styles, these duets present countless opportunities for musical and technical development without feeling so exercise-like as to preclude them from having a place on recital programs.

While thinking about this project, I received a number of messages from tubists, euphoniumists, and trombonists—performers and pedagogues alike—lamenting the various challenges they face when searching for duet literature. For example, trombonists looking for materials to play alongside their tuba students face a dilemma: most tuba duets are too low for the trombone, while most trombone duets are too high for the tuba. Others remarked that some tuba duets ignore the upper tessitura, making them unhelpful to players looking to build range and facility, or pointed out that many trombone duets are either musically fulfilling or technically accessible to non-professional players, but not both. The quality of low brass duet literature also varies widely, with little overlap between works that make useful teaching tools and those which are musically compelling enough to perform.

To address some of these issues, the duets in this book present a variety of technical challenges without losing sight of the importance of sound, pitch, phrasing and musicianship. Whether addressing technical issues like range, articulation, or velocity, each piece also requires that players pay attention to style, tone production, and ensemble playing. Moreover, each duet appears in two different keys, separated variously by a perfect fourth, tritone, or perfect fifth in order to avoid extreme ranges or particularly unwieldy key signatures. This allows players to learn each piece in the more comfortable tessitura first (tuba players beginning with the lower-keyed version, for instance), empowering them to subsequently approach the more challenging tessitura already armed with a musical plan of attack and command of the melodic lines and intervals.

Although some of the pieces in this book will undoubtedly be more or less challenging than others, depending on the combination of instruments and experience levels possessed by the performers, the hope is that each one adds value by providing opportunities to hone our musical and technical skills, allowing teachers to perform alongside their students, or allowing students to play with one another. I am grateful to all of those who reached out with thoughts about this project and hope you enjoy these Six Concert Caprices.