Category: Arizona State University

A dragon-bell trombone solo x one million people

by Douglas Yeo (December 13, 2025)

I don’t use any form of social media – Facebook, Instagram, and all the rest. I have my reasons for this but I understand that many people find it useful and helpful. Actually, there was a short time in my life when I did use Facebook. That was during the years I was Professor of Trombone at Arizona State University, 2012–2026. At that time, a Facebook page for our trombone studio was a great way to get out the message of what we were doing at ASU. It also was helpful for recruitment, and parents always seemed to enjoy the photos and videos I would post that included their children. But that was it for me and social media – when I retired from ASU, that was the end of my social media engagement.

Now and then, a friend or colleague will reach out to me and let me know that someone posted something about me, and now and then I hear from people who tag me on social media, wondering why I didn’t respond to them. Well, I don’t use social media; I never saw their tag!

Segue: Last week, I (Douglas Yeo) visited my friend, Dana Hofer, who owns Dana Hofer Brass Repair in Des Plaines, Illinois. He is the go to person for brass players in the Chicago area when they need an instrument fixed. Since we moved here in 2018, I’ve made many trips to his shop to get various instruments repaired. He’s a great technician, a decent, honorable, fair-minded person, and runs his business like he cares for and about his customers and their instruments. Because he does.

Earlier this year, I acquired a bell to a 200 year old buccin, a “dragon-bell” trombone made by Jean-Baptiste Tabard in Lyon, France. Tabard was active as a maker in the early nineteenth century and the buccin was popular in French military bands at that time. I’ve written about the buccin on TheLastTrombone. I recorded a video of me playing a buccin by Tabard at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I’ve also written the entry about the buccin for The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments and several other publications.

The logo of the International Trombone Association, based on a buccin by Tabard owned by New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

And. . . the buccin is the official logo of the International Trombone Association. That logo appears on the plaque I received in 2014 when I received the International Trombone Association’s ITA Award. It hangs on the wall above the desk where I am writing this blog post.

At its founding in 1972, the ITA adopted a stylized buccin logo based on a buccin in the collection of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where I taught for 27 years when I was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. And the maker of NEC’s buccin? Tabard. So, now I own a buccin that is a cousin to the one at New England Conservatory of Music, and the ITA’s logo has even more meaning to me.

The buccin bell I recently acquired was in very rough shape when it arrived on my doorstep. It was heavily dented, it was missing a brace, another brace had come loose at its flange, and it was covered with two centuries of patina and grime. But I knew that the right person could resurrect it. I asked Dana if he could restore the bell so I could play it. He agreed, and last week, he called and told me it was ready. I went to his shop to pick it up.

I love playing the buccin. I think it’s the coolest trombone ever made. It’s wonky looking and wonky sounding. And because the bell is over your head and not in front of you, you don’t have the bell as a guide to find slide positions. Imagine playing trombone with your eyes closed. That’s how you REALLY get to know the trombone. Playing it is a really fun challenge.

When I dropped the bell off for Dana to restore, I gave him a slide to my other buccin bell by François Sautermeister of Lyon, a slide that had been made for me by Jim Becker (formerly of Osmun Music in the Boston area, now with YAMAHA in New York City). I asked Dana to make a new receiver for that slide so it would fit on my newly acquired Tabard buccin.

Douglas Yeo’s buccin by Jean Baptiste Tabard, Lyon. Bell restored by Dana Hofer. Slide by James Becker after an original at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

When I saw my buccin at Dana’s shop last week, I was absolutely thrilled with his restoration. The dents were gone, a new brace was in place, the centuries of grime had been removed and I had a beautiful instrument in my hands. Here are some “before and after” photos:

Of course, I wanted to play it right away. After tooting a couple of arpeggios – and noticing that it played in A, not B-flat – Dana said, “Hey, let’s make a video for Instagram.” “Sure,” I said. Dana gave his iPhone to Sam Park, who works with Dana at the shop, and Sam took a video of me playing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” It was the first piece I’d ever played on the buccin and that was that.

It was over in 30 seconds. I went home and moved on to some other things.

A little later in the day, Dana texted to say he had posted the video on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to see the video, go to Dana Hofer Brass on Instagram, or Dana Hofer Brass Repair on Facebook. I also put it on my own YouTube channel so I could link the video to this blog post. Here’s the video:

Two hours later, Dana texted me again with a screenshot of his Instagram feed. He wrote:

Just so you know, the Instagram is blowing up. These are pretty high numbers for me.

The video had 13,400 views in two hours. I shook my head. I don’t know how Instagram works, but that seemed wild. Over the course of the week, the numbers kept climbing. Then, this morning, December 13, 2025, Dana texted me with an update and he sent me a message with the screenshot below:

Looks like we might hit 1 million today.

The Instagram feed for Dana Hofer Brass, 11:01 am, December 13, 2025. 997,000 views. Dana Hofer on the left; Douglas Yeo on the right.

Seriously? 997k views? 997,000? Nearly a MILLION views of this video? With 60,800 “likes” and 29,100 shares? I couldn’t believe it.

Sure enough, the video hit a MILLION views this afternoon. Here’s a screenshot Dana sent when the video hit that milestone:

The Instagram feed for Dana Hofer Brass, 12:56 pm, December 13, 2025. 1 million views.

There you go. 1M. 1 million people have watched me play “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” on a two hundred year old buccin. That. Is. Bonkers. You never know when something like this will happen. I was just trying out my new/old trombone. I wasn’t looking for a global audience. I wasn’t planning to play for one million people. And full disclosure: There’s nothing in this for me; there’s no money involved. But I’m thrilled that the buccin has a new audience, and most of all I’m happy for the publicity this has generated for Dana Hofer and his shop. A happy result of this is he’s gained hundreds of new followers for his Instagram and Facebook accounts, and if that results in more people using his services, that’s great news. If you’re in the Chicago area and you need a terrific brass instrument repair person, Dana Hofer — Dana Hofer Brass Repair — is the person you’ll want to see.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, friends—all 1 million of you—from Dana Hofer, my buccin, and me.

For everything there is a season

by Douglas Yeo (May 19, 2024)

The Bible gives us answers, and it reminds us of this (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, English Standard Version):

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

For each of us, our lives are full of seasons, and I have recently turned the page on a very long season of life and a new season is upon me.

One of the Bill Pearce solo trombone with piano books that my first trombone student, Lloyd, gave to me in payment for trombone lessons I gave him at Wheaton College in the summer of 1974.

I have been teaching trombone lessons since the summer of 1974. At that time, I was a student at Wheaton College and another student on campus, Lloyd, asked if he could take some lessons with me. Lloyd wasn’t a trombone major; in fact, he was a student at Wheaton College for only that one summer quarter. But I was happy to help him improve his skills. At the end of the lessons, Lloyd told me he didn’t have money to pay me but if I would accept them, he would give me five books of solos for trombone and piano by the great gospel trombonist Bill Pearce. 50 years later, I still have and use those books. After that summer, I began teaching weekly lessons to young players through the College’s Preparatory Department. Doing so helped me get through college without any debt (that job along with other jobs that included working as student manager of the College artist series, working two days a week at a local White Hen Pantry, and shoveling snow for an office park in the winter).

Since that time, I’ve taught regularly in many schools, first as a high school band director, then as trombone teacher/professor of trombone:

St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Edison NJ (1979-1981) — with students in rehearsal for the school’s production of My Fair Lady, 1981.

Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD (1982-1985) — Announcement from September 1982 in Peabody News listing faculty members who were members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

New England Conservatory of Music (1984-2012) — conducting the New England Trombone Choir at New England Conservatory, 1990

Arizona State University, Tempe AZ (2012-2016) — ASU Trombone Studio with the University’s mascot, Sparky, 2016

Wheaton College, Wheaton IL (2019-2023) — performance of Canzone by Girolamo Frescobaldi, arr. Eddy Koopman, Wheaton College faculty recital, April 23, 2022

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL (2022-2024) — signed photo given to me by members of the University of Illinois Trombone Studio, May 2024

Since I retired from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2012 after more than 27 years as a member of that great orchestra, my life has taken many turns. My wife, Patricia, and I moved to Arizona where I immediately flunked retirement and accepted the full time position as professor of trombone at Arizona State University. In 2018, we moved to the Chicago area to be near our grandchildren (grandkids truly make you do crazy things, like move from Arizona to the Midwest) and I flunked retirement again when I was asked to teach at my undergraduate alma mater, Wheaton College. When University of Illinois asked me to take a one year position as professor of trombone for 2022-2023—a position that came to me most unexpectedly and I thoroughly enjoyed—I looked forward to trying this retirement thing again in 2023 when that appointment was up and, at the same time, I decided to step away from teaching at Wheaton College. But as things turned out, one year of teaching at Illinois turned into two years. Happily, the Illinois School of Music recently hired a new full time trombone professor and my appointment at Illinois concluded.

I taught my last trombone lessons at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on May 1 and before I headed home, I wrote a letter to my students and colleagues that I posted on the bulletin board next to my office, shown above.

With my graduating students at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Music Convocation, May 12, 2024. Left to right: Rachel Lin (Bachelor of Music Education), Jerry Min (Bachelor of Music), Lorraine Montana (Master of Music)

I returned to campus on May 12 when University of Illinois held a Convocation ceremony for the School of Music and I celebrated the graduation of three of my students. In a sense it was a graduation ceremony for me, too, as I closed out two memorable years teaching at University of Illinois, a campus community where I feel a very strong connection. When the ceremony was over, I took off my academic regalia, switched off the lights in my office, and turned in my keys. On the long drive home through the beautiful, newly planted Illinois cornfields, I began to reflect on all that had just happened. A new season had begun.

Newly planted Illinois cornfields along Illinois Route 115, May 12, 2024

The corn is now just a few inches tall and in late fall it will be, in the words of the song, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'” from the musical Oklahoma!, “as high as an elephant’s eye.”

As I see it, “retirement” is a lousy word. When I decided to retire from the Boston Symphony, many of my colleagues asked me, “So, are you going to take up golf?” Nope. Golf doesn’t interest me. And I never saw “retirement” as a season of life devoted to non-stop self-entertainment. After decades playing in symphony orchestras, I looked forward to new adventures. I wanted to have more time to research and write, to travel with my wife, to enjoy more time with our daughters and their families, and, with open hands, respond to God’s call to His purposes for my life.

Retirement, as it turned out, meant not playing golf or kicking back and “doing nothing,” but, rather that I was busy doing a host of engaging activities.

The poster that hung in my office at University of Illinois for the last two years. It contains a logo my friend, Lennie Peterson, designed for our trombone studio, my five core tenets of teaching, and a quotation from Dr. Robert E. Gray that sums up the ethos of the University of Illinois Trombone Studio.

I’ve spent most of the last 12 years teaching at colleges and universities each week of the academic year: Arizona State, Wheaton College, University of Illinois. Working with those students has been such a big part of my life. But as I near a birthday with a zero on the end of it (it’s not 60; that was a long time ago. . .), I decided, after much thought and prayer, to step aside from weekly trombone teaching and have more time to do other things. This doesn’t mean I’ve taught my last trombone lesson. I love teaching; I still do. But this change in my life means I won’t be doing that teaching every week as a school’s trombone professor. This freedom gives me time to explore and enjoy both new and familiar things.

And there is a lot ahead for me. Later this month, I’ll travel to Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas, to take part in the International Trombone Festival. I’ll give a recital, serve on two roundtable discussion panels (one is about diversity considerations in recital programming; the other is about trombone research), give a major presentation about the celebrated trombonist Joannès Rochut, perform with the TCU trombone choir, and accept the International Trombone Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. This summer my wife and I will take hiking trips to Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks (with our oldest daughter’s family, including our grandchildren), and Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks (with our youngest daughter and her husband). In September, I’ll conduct a trombone residency at University of Texas, Austin. In October I’ll play ophicleide in concerts with the San Francisco-based early music group, Philharmonia Baroque. We’ll attend many baseball games this summer (Chicago Cubs, Schaumberg Boomers, Chicago Dogs, Kane County Cougars, Oakland Ballers), and fall will bring us to our seats in Chicago’s Soldier Field for Chicago Bears football. A major American symphony orchestra has asked if I would be willing to substitute with them in the coming season. Research and writing projects are on my plate (watch the July 2024 issue of the International Trombone Association Journal for my article about the history and a chemical analysis of trombone slide oil, and the January 2025 issue for my article about Joannès Rochut; I’m also at work on a new book for Oxford University Press), as are hikes, walks and tandem bicycle rides with Patricia. And serving our church and enjoying life with our grandchildren.

With my wife, Patricia, at Observation Point, Zion National Park, June 2023. We will return to this special place next month; it will be our 19th trip to Zion National Park.

So, as my long season of institutional teaching has turned a page, I look back at those decades with great fondness and gratitude. And I have learned this: I don’t know all of what God has for me going forward. With open hands, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to serve, learn, and contribute. I plan to keep doing that in both new and familiar ways as God leads. I look forward to seeing you along the road.

A radio show and the serpent (the instrument, not a snake)

by Douglas Yeo (December 13, 2023)

Readers of TheLastTrombone will remember that in May/June 2023, I traveled to Arizona State University to take part in the 50th Anniversary International Tuba Euphonium Conference. The conference, sponsored every other year by the International Tuba Euphonium Association, was hosted by my good friend, Deanna Swoboda, tuba professor at ASU. While there, I gave a presentation about the Native American Sousaphone player John Kuhn and I also played a recital of music that featured that most unusual of musical instruments, the serpent.

Finding a practice room at a conference can be challenging, so I warmed up before my recital outside the Arizona State University music building. Photo by Tom Hentschel.

The serpent is an instrument that needs to be both seen and heard to be understood. I’ve written about it before on TheLastTrombone, in First Music Monday with the serpent (January 4, 2017), Residency at Bowling Green State University: serpent, trombone and a face cake (April 8, 2017), and Reformation: Luther, Mendelssohn, and the serpent (November 11, 2017), in addition to the article I wrote in anticipation of the 2023 International Tuba Euphonium Conference, Entering the tuba/euphonium universe: ITEC 2023.

Douglas Yeo, serpent, in performance with pianist Susan Wass, piano. Katzin Concert Hall, Arizona State University. Photo by Tom Hentschel.

The ITEC serpent concert was a happy success thanks to the collaborative artists who worked with me on the program. Our concert included two works for serpent and piano on which Susan Wass accompanied me on piano, and two works for a small chamber group of wind instruments.

In rehearsal with Curtis Sellers and Martin Schuring, oboe; Josh Gardner and Stefanie Gardner, clarinet; Jason Caslor, conductor (standing), Bailey Hendley, horn; Jamal Duncan, conductor (standing); Isabella Kolasinski, horn; Albie Micklich, bassoon; Harrison Cody, bassoon (standing); Michelle Fletcher, bassoon; Douglas Yeo, serpent. Katzin Concert Hall, Arizona State University.

As you can see from the microphones in the photos above, our concert was recorded by Central Sound at Arizona PBS. I’ve had an affiliation with Central Sound since 2016 when I began working for the weekly radio show, Arizona Encore, broadcast on KBAQ-FM, Phoenix, every Tuesday evening at 7:00. The show is also available on demand on the Arizona PBS website. I started my work for the show when my wife and I lived in Arizona (I wrote about this on TheLastTrombone on September 23, 2016) and I’ve continued to host the show periodically since we moved to the Chicago area in 2018. I enjoy researching and writing the scripts and recording the shows, and in the process, I’ve learned a lot about many superb performers and the music they play.

When our ITEC serpent recital was packaged for an Arizona Encore show, my producer asked if I would write the script and host the program. Yes! And I’m happy to say the program, which was first broadcast on KBAQ-FM on December 5, 2023, is now available on the Arizona Encore page on the Arizona PBS website. Click HERE or click the image above to go to the Arizona Encore serpent program page and hear the show. Here is the playlist for the show, that, in addition to three pieces from my serpent recital at ITEC 2023, includes a performance by the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music Wind Ensemble:

• Ingolf Dahl – Sinfonietta – University of Southern California – Thornton Wind Ensemble; Robert Reynolds, conductor

I. Introduction and Rondo

II. Pastoral Nocturne

III. Dance Variations

• Clifford Bevan – Variations on “The Pesky Sarpent” – Douglas Yeo, serpent; Susan Wass, piano

• attributed to Joseph Haydn – Divertimento in B-flat (Chorale St. Antoni), Hob. II/46 – Joshua Gardner and Stefanie Gardner, clarinet; Albie Micklich, Michelle Fletcher, and Harrison Cody, bassoon; Isabella Kolasinski and Bailey Hendley, horn; Douglas Yeo, serpent; Jamal Duncan, conductor.

I. Allegro con spirito

II. Andante

III. Menuetto

IV. Rondo-Allegretto

• Johann Neopmuk Hummel – Partita in E-flat – Martin Schuring and Curtis Sellers, oboe; Joshua Gardner and Stefanie Gardner, clarinet; Albie Micklich, Michelle Fletcher, bassoon; Isabella Kolasinski and Bailey Hendley, horn; Douglas Yeo, serpent; Jason Caslor, conductor.

I. Allegro con spirito

II. Andante piu tosto-Allegretto

III. Vivace assai

Have a listen and enjoy a foray into the world of the serpent, an instrument that’s so old it’s new.

Performance of the Partita in E-flat of Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Joshua Gardner and Stefanie Gardner, clarinet; Isabella Kolasinski and Bailey Hendley, horn; Albie Micklich, Michelle Fletcher, and Harrison Cody, bassoon; Douglas Yeo, serpent; Jamal Duncan, conductor. Katzin Concert Hall, Arizona State University. Photo by Tom Hentschel.

Entering the tuba/euphonium universe: ITEC 2023

by Douglas Yeo

I’ve been playing the trombone since 1964, when I was in fourth grade. For many years thereafter, trombone was the only wind instrument I played. OK, I played the flutophone for awhile in elementary school (and then during my freshman year in college when my roommate and I would jam regularly, he on piano and me on flutophone—trust me, you can improvise on it). But maybe that doesn’t count. When I got to Wheaton College, I began to branch out more seriously to other instruments. I minored in euphonium briefly when I was a student at Wheaton College from 1974–1976 before switching my minor instrument to percussion. In 1988, for Boston Symphony Orchestra performances of Richard Strauss’ opera, Elektra, I picked up the bass trumpet for the first time and I ended up playing that instrument on a host of BSO performances of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Janacek’s Sinfonietta, excerpts from Wagner operas, and many other pieces. Over the years, contrabass trombone and bass sackbut in F were eventually added to my doubling lexicon.

I love playing those instruments, but in 1994, I began playing an instrument that truly changed my life: the serpent. It was by playing the serpent—an instrument invented in the late sixteenth century that found full flower in France accompanying the singing of chant in the Roman Catholic Church, and which later became a regular member of military bands, chamber music ensembles, and symphony orchestras until the invention of the ophicleide and eventually the tuba and euphonium—in performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra of Hector Berlioz’s Messe solennelle in Boston, New York, and Tokyo, that I found another instrument (besides bass trombone) that truly changed the course of my musical life. I have played serpent (and ophicleide as well) in modern and period instrument orchestras, in chamber music groups, and as a solo instrument in recitals and orchestra concerts.

Douglas Yeo, composer Simon Proctor, and conductor John Williams, after a performance of Proctor’s Serpent Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra, John Williams, conductor, May 29, 1997

I also made a solo recording on serpent (Le monde du serpent), produced an instructional DVD about the instrument (Approaching the Serpent: An Historical and Pedagogical Overview), wrote a book about it (Serpents, Bass Horns, and Ophicleides at the Bate Collection), and I appear with a serpent in my hands on museum video and audio guides around the world. One of the things my serpentine exploits led me to was an intersection with the universe of tuba and euphonium players.

Display of serpents with video of Douglas Yeo, Hamamatsu (Japan) Museum of Musical Instruments, 2019

I’m sure many people have forgotten—or never knew—that the logo for the International Tuba Euphonium Association used to be a serpent. Back in the 1980s, when the organization operated under its previous name, Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association, or T.U.B.A. (the name was changed in 2000 to reflect a more inclusive view of women and euphonium players), a serpent figured prominently on the cover of its quarterly journal. Such as was the case on this cover, below, from the May 1987 issue where my article, Tuba Players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1913–1987, was published. You can read that article by clicking HERE.

I’ll say more about the serpent in particular in a future article, but there is a reason for this excursus. Next week I’ll be traveling to Tempe, Arizona, to take part in the 50th International Tuba Euphonium Conference (ITEC), presented by the International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA), and hosted by my friend, Dr. Deanna Swoboda at Arizona State University. I’ve attended many International Trombone Festivals, and the Fourth Trombone and Tuba Festival in Beijing. But this is my first time at an ITEC event and as a result, I’m looking forward to entering the tuba/euphonium universe in a new way.

ITEC 2023 will feature the kinds of things brass players are accustomed to at these kinds of events. There will be competitions, solo and ensemble performances, lectures, masterclasses, panel discussions, group sight-reading sessions, exhibitors displaying the latest instruments and accessories, and plenty of time for attendees to hang out and talk shop. I’ll be presenting two programs at ITEC.

On Thursday, June 1, I’ll give a presentation about John M. “Chief Red Cloud” Kuhn, a Native American sousaphone player who played with the bands of Bohumir Kryl, Patrick Conway, and John Philip Sousa, then with the Isham Jones Orchestra, and then as a member of the NBC Radio Orchestra in Chicago. And these are only a few of the many groups he played with. Kuhn’s story is remarkable. Born a member of the Assiniboine Nation on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana in 1882, he rose to become one of the most celebrated tuba players of the first half of the twentieth century. The story of this influential Native American is fascinating and my presentation will include information about Kuhn and photos that have never been seen before, thanks to the generosity of his granddaughter, Katherine Kuhn Rose, and his great-grandson, Kevin Leahy. They have shared photos and materials from the Kuhn family collection, and my presentation will appear as an article in the ITEA Journal sometime next year.

John Kuhn with John Philip Sousa’s Band, 1919. Photo courtesy Kuhn Family Collection.

Then, on Friday, June 2, I’ll give a recital of music that features serpent. I’ll be joined for two pieces—a partita by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Partita in E-flat, 1803) and a divertimento attributed to Joseph Haydn (Divertimento in B-flat [Chorale St. Antoni], 1782/84—by a group of ASU faculty and students conducted by Jason Caslor and Jamal Duncan. I’ll also be joined by pianist Susan Wass for two pieces for serpent and piano by Clifford Bevan (Variations on “The Pesky Serpent,” 1996) and Thérèse Brenet (De bronze et de lumière (2008). Here’s a preview, a performance I gave of Cliff Bevan’s piece at a faculty recital I gave at Wheaton College in 2022:

If you’ve never heard a serpent before, ITEC 2023 is an opportunity to see it in action.

Information about ITEC 2023 can be found HERE on the ITEA website. It’s not too late to register. A schedule of activities can be found HERE. If you’re coming to Arizona State University for ITEC 2023, I look forward to seeing you there. Serpent and sousaphone—what’s not to like!