by Douglas Yeo (January 4, 2025)
I have been researching the life, work, and influence of the celebrated French trombonist, Joannès Rochut, for nearly 40 years. Rochut, as readers of The Last Trombone know (see my previous blog posts about Joannès Rochut HERE, HERE, and HERE), played principal trombone in the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1925–1930, and he published three volumes of “Melodious Etudes for Trombone” from the vocalises of Marco Bordogni. Rochut’s books are among the most influential study material for trombone ever published.
In May 2024, I gave a presentation about Rochut at the International Trombone Festival, held at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Yesterday, my full research on Rochut was published in the January 2025 issue of the International Trombone Association Journal (Volume 53, No. 1). The issue—with my article—is now available to all ITA members on the ITA’s website. Members who also subscribe to the print version of the Journal will receive their copy later this month.
If you are not a member of the International Trombone Association, I’d like to encourage you to join. I’ve been a member of the ITA since its founding in 1972. I was a senior in high school at the time, and when I learned that the ITA had been established, I joined right away. Over the years, I’ve written many articles for the ITA Journal, have served on ITA committees, and have attended and presented at many International Trombone Festivals. I’m very grateful that the ITA bestowed its ITA Award on me in 2014, and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024. Members of the ITA receive the Association’s quarterly Journal, a regular e-newsletter, and stay connected with the world-wide community of trombonists. As soon as you join, you’ll have access to the current issue and the archive of past issues of the ITA Journal. This is a rich resource that informs our knowledge about trombone activities in the last half-century. The ITA also has a Facebook page where you can keep up to date on the latest activities of the Association and trombonists around the world.
The ITA has several levels of membership. Student membership is heavily discounted, and a further discount is applied if a member does not want to receive the print edition of the ITA Journal (all ITA members have access to the online version of the ITA Journal; it is an exact reproduction of the printed version). Discounts are also available for multi-year membership and 65+ year old membership, and lifetime membership is also available (I became a paid life member of the ITA in 1983). To learn more about all of the ITA’s membership levels and join the ITA, click HERE.
My article about Joannès Rochut is the longest article ever published in the ITA Journal. At 70 pages, with 80 images and 210 endnotes, I am deeply grateful for the commitment th ITA’s executive board to publish my article in nearly a double-sized (112 page) January 2025 issue of the ITA Journal. If you’ve ever played a vocalise by Marco Bordogni, own a copy of one of Rochut’s books, are interested in learning more about trombone teachers and students at the Paris Conservatoire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, want to know more about the history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, read about Rochut’s quest for the perfect trombone, or learn about Joannès Rochut’s other trombone publications and the students who studied trombone with him at New England Conservatory of Music (they include Ida Isabella Bisbee–the first woman to graduate from New England Conservatory with a degree in trombone performance—and John Coffey), you’ll find all that and more in my article. Here are a couple of sample pages from my article:
It’s all there—and more—on the International Trombone Association’s website, trombone.net, and members receive all of the benefits the Association has to offer.
I’m already at work on several more articles for the ITA Journal that will publish in late 2025 and early 2026. If you’re an ITA member, you’ll find them there when they publish. Stay tuned.
The Last Trombone – Douglas Yeo 