About the conductor: Nathaniel O. Brickens, Professor of Music at The University of Texas at Austin, teaches trombone and serves as director of the UT Trombone Choir. Dr. Brickens holds a D.M.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, an M.M. from the University of Michigan, and a B.M. from Southern University. In recognition of his teaching, he has received several citations including being nominated for the UT Senate of College Councils 2009 Professor of the Year Award, recipient of a 2009 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teacher Award, a 2006-07 Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship and a 2005 Texas Exes Excellence in Teaching Award. As a free-lance trombonist, Dr. Brickens has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Houston Symphony, Opera St. Louis, the Austin Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra, Ray Charles, Lena Horne, the Temptations, and with a wide variety of other popular artists. He has toured nationally as trombonist in the Texas Opera Theater Orchestra (the touring arm of the Houston Grand Opera), the Paragon Brass Ensemble, and the Chicago-based Black Music Repertory Ensemble. He has performed on NBC's Today Show and on the stage of many of our nation's finest concert halls. Several concerts have been heard on National Public Radio and Public Radio International broadcasts. Dr. Brickens is a vocal advocate for the trombone and an active member of the International Trombone Association. He served as ITA President (2002-2004), and presided over meetings in Helsinki, Finland and Ithaca, New York. An artist/clinician for Bach/Selmer Musical Instruments, he has performed at festivals in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Finland, Russia, and The Netherlands. His teachers include Paul Adams, Glenn P. Smith, David Waters and Donald Knaub.

About the Ensemble: The University of Texas Trombone Choir serves as a laboratory extension of the UT Trombone Studio and specializes in performing original music written for 4- to 16-part ensembles of trombones. As a testament to the group's artistry, the UT Trombone Choir was named winner of the 2007 and 2002 Emory Remington International Trombone Choir Competitions, and were featured at the 2009, 2006 and 2002 Eastern Trombone Workshop in Washington DC. They also presented a showcase performance at the Kennedy Center in our nation's capitol in March of 2006, one of the first trombone choirs to be so honored. The Choir conducted a three-city tour of Brazil during the summer of 2004, performing and presenting masterclasses at universities in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro Federal University) and Sao Paulo (Santa Marcelina University) en route to a showcase concert at the Brazilian Trombone Festival at Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos in Porto Alegre. Trip highlights included a performance and interview on South America's most popular TV talk show, "Programa do Jo"; and a standing-room-only performance for nearly 2,000 attendees in Rio's oldest and most important cathedral, Igreja da Candelaria. Their CD, Christmas with the UT Trombone Choir, was submitted by the recording industry for Grammy Nomination consideration. The UT Jazz Bones, a more recent addition to the UT trombone ensemble lineup, was named winner of the 2001 and 2007 International Trombone Association's Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition, and the 2007 ETW Jazz Trombone Ensemble competition.

back to "What's New"