Category: teaching

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.

Let’s do better.

by Douglas Yeo (May 6, 2024)

The academic and performing arts worlds are roiled today by the recent exposure of the latest in a long, sordid string of despicable acts of harassment and assault by male brass instrument players against female colleagues in symphony orchestras and against female students at colleges and universities. To the frat house mentality brass boys who dismiss these concerns with a shrug, my or anyone’s words of condemnation may not mean much as you sit in your cave of self-justification while continuing to destroy lives—until you find yourself dismissed from your job, your reputation ruined, or in jail. But as husband to my wife who plays baritone horn, the father of two daughters who play bass trombone and trumpet, and grandfather to my granddaughter who looks forward to learning to play trombone this summer, I’d like to encourage my fellow men who understand the seriousness and importance of this issue to join with me and others and go further than simply making statements of support.

Let’s back up our words with action. Be an advocate for women who work in the male-dominated world of brass playing. Respect boundaries. Don’t look the other way when you see an abusive situation unfolding. Speak up. Intervene when tasteless, inappropriate jokes are told. Disrupt stereotyping. Listen to, believe, and help victims. Have the courage to call out perpetrators and let them know that you will not play their dirty game; that what they are doing is evil, reprehensible, and wrong; that you won’t run in their circle; that you are not one of them. Don’t be silent. Report misconduct.

Let’s do better.

University of Illinois trombones: two happy announcements

by Douglas Yeo (March 5, 2024)

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has recently made two important, happy announcements that I’d like to share with readers of The Last Trombone.

I have been serving as trombone professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for the last two years, since August 2022. At that time, the UIUC School of Music was in need of a trombone professor when its previous full time trombone professor abruptly resigned in May 2022. I was happy to accept the offer to take on this work while the School of Music conducted a search for a new full time trombone professor. Unfortunately, the search that was held during the 2022-2023 academic year was not successful in hiring a new trombone professor so a new search was mounted in fall 2023. In light of this, I agreed to return for a second year. Today, Dr. Linda Moorhouse, Director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Music announced that Dr. Jonathan Whitaker has been named professor of trombone at UIUC effective August 2024.

Dr. Jonathan Whitaker. Photo courtesy of Edwards Instrument Co.

I have known Jonathan Whitaker for many years and I am delighted that events have come together to bring him to University of Illinois. Dr. Whitaker’s work at University of Alabama—where he has been professor of trombone since 2009—is well known. He has a proven track record in building and growing the Alabama trombone studio, and his students have experienced remarkable success over the years. Here is something about Dr. Jonathan Whitaker, from the announcement by Dr. Linda Moorhouse:

Jonathan Whitaker joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in the fall of 2009. At Alabama, Dr. Whitaker’s students have been tremendously successful in national and international solo competitions as well as being placed in some of the nation’s top summer music festivals. The University of Alabama Trombone Choir has given performances at the 2010 Eastern Trombone Workshop, the 2011 International Trombone Festival, the 2013 International Trombone Festival, and the 2018 American Trombone Workshop. Dr. Whitaker has also appeared twice as a performer and clinician at the American Trombone Workshop and two International Trombone Festivals. Dr. Whitaker is in great demand as a guest artist and has appeared at some of the most prestigious music schools in the country including The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Yale University, Indiana University, and many more.

As a soloist, Dr. Whitaker can be heard on numerous recordings including the 2018 release of his second solo recording entitled “Paceline” and his debut solo recording entitled “Nature’s Gift” with pianist Kevin Chance. He is a featured soloist on two recordings with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble that include Anthony Barfield’s Red Sky and David Maslanka’s Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble. These recordings are available at jonathanwhitaker.com.

Dr. Whitaker has been very active in commissioning new works for the trombone. In 2019, he gave the world premiere of Scott McAllister’s Atipa-Tcoba at the 2020 American Bandmasters Association Convention with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble. Other notable commissions and premieres include Nicola Ferro’s Mega for solo trombone and wind ensemble (2016) and Jim Stephenson’s Three Bones Concerto (2013), commissioned for the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble along with Joseph Alessi and Peter Ellefson. He also performed the work at the 2013 Eastern Trombone Workshop with the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” He is also responsible for the commissioning of Eric Ewazen’s Visions of Light, as well as several other compositions including music for trombone and piano, unaccompanied trombone and trombone choir. Dr. Whitaker also is the author of the trombone version of the popular method, The Brass Gym, and has several published arrangements with Alessi Publications.

In 2012, Dr. Whitaker made his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist at the New York Wind Band Festival. He has appeared as a soloist with all the wind groups at Indiana University, the Augustana College Symphonic Band, the Purdue University Symphony Orchestra, the Henderson State University Wind Ensemble and performed a premier performance of John Mackey’s Harvest: Concerto for Trombone with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble in the fall of 2010. He also performed the American premier of Johan de Meij’s T-Bone Concerto with the Murray State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Dr. Whitaker has performed with the New York Philharmonic on three separate occasions including the orchestra’s 2012 Opening Gala that was broadcast on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS with music director Alan Gilbert. He is currently Principal Trombone of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Whitaker performs regularly with the Alabama Symphony and has also held positions with the Harrisburg Symphony (PA), Mobile Symphony (AL), Arkansas Symphony, Pine Bluff Symphony (AR), Shreveport Symphony (LA), South Arkansas Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony (MN), Owensboro Symphony (KY), Evansville Philharmonic (IN), Richmond Symphony (IN), Jackson Symphony (TN), and the Paducah Symphony (KY).

Dr. Whitaker holds degrees in trombone performance from Murray State University (BMUS) and the University of Minnesota (MMUS), and the Doctor of Music in Brass Pedagogy from Indiana University. Dr. Whitaker’s primary teachers include Ray Conklin, Tom Ashworth, M. Dee Stewart, Peter Ellefson, and Joseph Alessi with additional studies with Arnold Jacobs, Edward Kleinhammer, Michael Mulcahy, Charlie Vernon, and Douglas Wright.

Jonathan Whitaker is a Getzen Artist and performs on Griego Mouthpieces.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Whitaker to campus this summer. After UIUC’s School of Music Convocation on May 12, I will clean out my office and head home. While one never knows what may happen in the future, I will be closing the door on over 40 years of teaching on the college level. I have greatly enjoyed this teaching work over the years, and I’ve been blessed to work with many talented students who have gone on to do great things to impact our world, in musical and other ways. But at this season of life, I look forward to having more time to devote to activities with my family, and to spend more time researching and writing. That said, I will always be grateful for these two years at University of Illinois. Readers of The Last Trombone know how I have enjoyed that tremendous campus community. I look forward to continuing to celebrate the activities and accomplishments of the students at the University of Illinois trombone studio and I’m absolutely delighted to be handing the keys to the office off to Dr. Jonathan Whitaker. If you are a trombonist looking for a college education at a place where you can be part of a vibrant community with a superb trombone teacher, I urge you to consider applying to the University of Illinois School of Music. With Dr. Whitaker at the helm of the UIUC trombone studio, his big plans will be announced soon and exciting days are ahead for trombone students at Illinois.

And speaking of trombone students at University of Illinois, we have recently announced that the recipient of the 2023–2024 Robert E. Gray Trombone Award is junior tenor trombone music education major Ethan Groharing.

Ethan Groharing, recipient of the University of Illinois 2023–2024 Robert E. Gray Award

Dr. Robert E. Gray was professor of trombone at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1955–1991 and upon his retirement, the Robert E. Gray Trombone Award was established thanks to the generosity of the Gray family, many of Dr. Gray’s former students, and friends of the Illinois trombone studio. The award has been given each year since 1993 to a trombone student at Illinois who embodies the ideals of Dr. Gray—who was a transformative educator, a fine trombonist, founder of the University of Illinois Wind Ensemble, and President of the International Trombone Association— as exemplified in his words:

Take your time in your work. Don’t always push and do what is expedient. Develop an understanding of life and humanity in your degree work. It will make you a better person.

Last year, the award was given to Poorna Kumar, a sophomore (now a junior) tenor trombone performance/community health double major who has served as a drum major for the Marching Illini (University of Illinois’ marching band) for the last two years. I wrote about Poorna, her accomplishments, and her receiving the 2022–2023 Robert E. Gray Trombone Award HERE.

Ethan Groharing, recipient of the University of Illinois 2023–2024 Robert E. Gray Trombone Award

This year’s recipient, Ethan Groharing, has distinguished himself in a number of ways. For 2023–2024, he served as trombone section leader for the Marching Illini. In addition to continued improvement as a trombonist (this semester he is playing both in the UIUC Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony), he has served in leadership roles in the band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. Of particular note is Ethan’s recent involvement to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Good mental health is important for everyone, and last year, Ethan worked to raise $500 for the Foundation, which he did. This year, he set the goal higher and he exceeded it, raising $2,000 for this important cause through Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. As part of his fundraising effort, Ethan said he would dye his hair green if he made his goal, since green is the color of the mental health awareness ribbon. Ethan powered past his goal and he made good on his promise to dye his hair, something made us on campus smile and also raised even more awareness for this cause that is so important to him. In addition to a cash award, the Robert E. Gray Award now includes the Robert E. Gray Trombone Award medal that Ethan and other recipients can wear at graduation, and his name is now inscribed on a plaque in the University of Illinois trombone studio along with the names of previous recipients of the award.

Here we have two new things to celebrate at University of Illinois: the appointment of our new trombone professor, Dr. Jonathan Whitaker, and the awarding of the 2023–2024 Robert E. Gray Trombone Award to Ethan Groharing. I’m happy to share this news with readers of The Last Trombone as we look forward to finishing out the current school year in a few weeks and turning the page to an exciting new future for trombones at University of Illinois.

Why school spirit matters

by Douglas Yeo (October 23, 2023)

Last week was homecoming at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I am currently serving as the School of Music’s trombone professor through the 2023–2024 academic year. Homecoming is an annual tradition that dates back further than anyone can remember, and most colleges and universities hold the same tradition. It’s a time for alumni to come back to campus, there’s usually an important football game on the weekend, a parade, and school colors—orange and blue—are everywhere.

Sign promoting University of Illinois homecoming, outside of the University’s Native American House.

University of Illinois Bookstore, October 18, 2023.

Welcome sign in the University of Illinois School of Music.

I’ve always enjoyed school spirit. While it hasn’t always been evident in some of the schools where I’ve taught, I’ve taught at two schools that have exceptional school spirit. When I was professor of trombone at Arizona State University (2012-2016), school spirit was everywhere. Everyone—everyone—wore gear in ASU maroon and gold. You just did that. The same is true at University of Illinois. The campus bleeds orange and blue. Not just at homecoming weekend, but year round.

I’m a part of this. I think school spirit is important (more on why I feel that way in a moment). So I fly the flag. My office is full of reminders of University of Illinois, particularly the orange block “I” that permeates campus life. “The Power of I” is the slogan. Not “I” as in “me, myself, and I,” but “I” as a representative of University of Illinois and its community. Look at these photos of my office at Illinois that I took last week. You can engage in a little game of “Where’s Waldo?” and find all of the “I” in my office. I made it easy for you; they’re circled in red.

Nine Illinois I in this photo of my desk.

Five Illinois I in this photo of a wall in my office.

Four Illinois I in this photo of the door to my office.

We even put the Illinois block “I” on our computer keyboards:

You get the idea. I promote Illinois orange and blue and the Illinois I because I am proud to be a member of the University of Illinois community and in this, I show solidarity with my students, alumni, and all who have ever been associated with the University. And there is that word: Community.

Foellinger Auditorium on the quad at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

If you read my article on The Last Trombone that I posted on October 25, 2023, “What is happening? It’s not all about you. Or about me. It’s about the music.”, you saw that word there, too. Community. In that article, I talked about the fact that as trombonists, we work in community with other members of orchestras, bands, and other ensembles. We do not act as individuals—even when we have a solo. Everything we do is contextualized by our working in community. We work together. All parts of the community are always equally important, but not all members of the community are always as prominent as others at any given moment. There is a difference between importance and prominence. On a college campus as large as University of Illinois—44,000 students on campus—it might seem difficult to get your arms around the fact that we are all part of the same community. It’s true that none of us know everyone on campus, but we are part of the same community. We walk the same halls, we cross the same quad in the center of campus, and we all wear the Illinois “I.” We are bound together by our place, our purpose, and our sense of belonging.

The University of Illinois student section and Marching Illini at Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois, October 21, 2023.

When my wife, Patricia, and I attended the Illinois/Wisconsin football game last Saturday, we sat in a section of the stadium where we did not know a single person by name. Yet we were bound together with those that were around us by the fact that we were all part of the Illinois community. We cheered the team, we cheered the Marching Illini, we cheered the alumni band, we cheered for Red Grange and George Halas and Dick Butkus, storied alumni of University of Illinois who went on to play for the Chicago Bears. I looked over at the packed student section that held up cards to make the Illinois “I” while the Marching Illini played the University’s fight song, “Oskee Wow-Wow.” When, the next day, Pat and I attended the Chicago Bears/Oakland Raiders game at Soldier Field in Chicago, I wore my Red Grange jersey on which Pat had sowed a University of Illinois patch. I brought “The Power of I” to Soldier Field with my Red Grange jersey.

The University of Illinois patch I have on my Chicago Bears Red Grange #77 jersey.

When we were recently in Florence, Italy (where Pat and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary and enjoyed a week of Renaissance art, churches, parks, and remarkable food), we were walking down a street when I heard, I-L-L! I was wearing a University of Illinois hat at the time and anyone who is part of that community knows that when someone says, I-L-L! the proper response is, I-N-I! There I was, nearly 5000 miles away from home, and “The Power of I” was at work. The same thing happens on hiking trails. Wearing school gear—a hat, a shirt, a sweatshirt, a backpack—identifies you as part of a community and it is a badge that reaches out to others who share the same connection with that place that you have. People you had never met before stop and talk with you about that connection. It’s happened to us many, many times. On a hiking trail in the middle of nowhere, you belong to something bigger than yourself. You belong to a community.

This is why I think school spirit is so great. In a time where it seems that “It’s all about ME,” school spirit says, “It’s all about US.” Community pushes against selfishness. Community pushes against self-centered individualism. Community brings us together, and school spirit is an important part of bringing people together.

John Donne wrote about this in his memorable Meditation CVII from his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). Donne, in a masterstroke of memorable prose, wrote:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of friends or of thine

own were; any man’s death diminishes me

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

We are dependent upon one another, connected to one another, and our individual uniqueness is part of a greater whole. When we are together, we can do things we can’t do when we’re alone. School spirit is about togetherness, about belonging. It pushes against selfishness and “it’s all about me.” “The Power of I” is about “it’s all about us.” That’s why I like school spirit.

I-L-L!

I think I hear someone answering, I-N-I!

The statue of Alma mater by Laredo Taft, on the campus of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Alma mater is surrounded by representations of labor and learning.