ITF 2008 : Artists : Utah Symphony Orchestra Low Brass

Artists

Utah Symphony Orchestra Low Brass

Russell McKinney

Russell McKinney is the Bass Trombonist of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 1989. Before coming to Utah, he was Bass Trombonist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra during the 1988‑89 season as a sabbatical replacement, participating in all activities including tours and recordings with the Grammy Award winning orchestra. Prior to that he was a member of the core orchestra of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Association. He has served as a substitute musician with both the Baltimore Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. as well as the Kennedy Center Orchestra of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He also spent four seasons on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina.

Frequently sought after for recording, jazz, and commercial work, as well as classical ensembles, Mr. McKinney has performed with practically every ensemble of note in Utah. These include The Utah Chamber Artists, Ballet West Orchestra, Jazz of the Mountainwest and numerous recording engagements for local and national TV, radio and movies, including the “Hercules” and “Xena” series’, ABC Sports and most recently “Benji, Off the Leash.”

Mr. McKinney is a clinician for Edwards Instruments and plays an Edwards bass Trombone ( http://www.edwards-instruments.com) . He regularly makes appearances as a soloist and guest artist locally and in other states. Recent appearances include master classes and recitals at Brigham Young University‑Idaho, University of Nevada Las Vegas and a solo recital at First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. He was a featured soloist at the 19th Annual UNLV 76+4 Trombones and has appeared as soloist with the University of Utah’s Wind Ensemble and the Utah Youth Orchestra. Former engagements for recitals and master classes have been at such institutions as Ithaca College, Idaho State University– Pocatello, Snow College, and the 1998 International Trombone Festival in Boulder, Colorado with the Utah Symphony Trombone Section.

From 1995-2005, Mr. McKinney built a maintained a successful trombone studio at the University of Utah. He began as an Adjunct Instructor and was promoted twice ending his tenure there as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Music in his final three years. During that time, he taught education and performance majors on both tenor and bass trombones. Tuba students also frequently took lessons with him. He is a specialist in “upstream” embouchures on low brass instruments, being an “upstreamer” himself. His undergraduate students have gone on to pursue graduate degrees at such institutions as New England Conservatory, The Longy School in Boston, The Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School. His graduate students have included students from BYU, Ithaca College, and the Juilliard School. His students have gone on to positions in the “President’s Own” Marine Band in Washington, D.C., the Gulf Coast Orchestra in Florida, The Orchestra at Temple Square, and to substitute with the Utah Symphony, and other professional orchestras and bands across the country. Two of his bass trombone students have been finalists in the International Trombone Association’s Lewis Van Haney Mock Orchestral Auditions, in 1998 and 2002.

During his tenure at the University of Utah, Mr. McKinney also founded the University of Utah Trombone Ensemble (UUTE). This innovative ensemble started in the Fall of 1998 with eight members (the current trombone majors and a few marching band trombonists) and grew to average of 22 trombonists per concert plus percussionists and rhythm section.The membership came to include area professionals as well as students from Weber State, BYU, ad Snow College. UUTE gave annual Christmas Concerts and appeared before Christmas Pop Concerts of the Utah Symphony Orchestra in the Lobby each year during that period and presented Spring Concerts with various themes each year. The group has commissioned and premiered two original compositions from Utah composers and has at inspired at least 35 new arrangements for trombone ensemble, running the gamut from Bruckner choral music to The Main Title from “Star Wars” all done by members of the group and Mr. McKinney. UUTE continues now as an independent ensemble and stands for Utah’s Ultimate Trombone Ensemble. Check http://uute.egi.utah.edu for upcoming events and more information.

Mr. McKinney attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore receiving Peabody's Gustav Klemm Award for exemplary work in his chosen field of study, Trombone Performance. He was also a Bellinger Orchestra Scholarship recipient for the Chautauqua Institute in New York state in 1983. His principal teachers were Milton Stevens, Principal Trombonist of the National Symphony Orchestra, Harold Janks, Bass Trombonist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Douglas Yeo, Bass Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Edward Kiehl, retired Principal Trombonist of the Kennedy Center Orchestra. Harold Reynolds, now Associate Professor of Trombone at Ithaca College and Frank Hammond, former Professor of Trombone at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and retired Professor of Music at North Carolina State University were both important and influential teachers early on in Mr. McKinney’s education

Mr. McKinney has long been interested and involved in sacred choral music. His first significant experiences came as a youth participating in the music program of Muir’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He sang in choirs, sang and acted in musicals (“You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” and “Godspell”) , and conducted the Chancel Choir in special programs at MCUMC, as well as playing the trombone and other instruments for services and special programs during his teenage years. Perhaps the most significant early experience was preparing and conducting a performance of Bruckner’s “Second Mass in E Minor” in 1980 as a High School Senior. After volunteering in church music programs all over the country as he moved to pursue his orchestral career, Mr. McKinney accepted a position with the Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City as Music Director in 1998. During that period he began composing sacred choral music as well as more than doubling the size of the choir from 12 to over 27 during the first two years of his five year tenure. In 2003, he accepted the position of Choir Director at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Salt Lake City. In the two years since Mr. McKinney began, the choir has grown from 12 to 22 members and is still growing. Annual concerts and special choral services have been reintroduced and repertoire has expanded to include classic sacred works from several centuries as well as new pieces of worth from a variety of styles. In addition, Mr. McKinney is the Managing Director for a new series of concerts began in 2005, the First Presbyterian Church’s Community Concert Series ( http://www.fpc.slc.org).

Mr. McKinney was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and graduated with honors from the Walter Hines Page High School in 1980. He has been married to his High School sweetheart, Linda (nee Sutton) for more than 20 years, and they reside in Salt Lake City with their three children, Nathaniel, Laura, and Abbie and their five cats. Linda is the band director for Redeemer Lutheran, Grace Lutheran and Lutheran High Schools in Salt Lake City. The McKinney’s enjoy RV’ing in the summer as much as possible and especially enjoy visiting Yellowstone National Park and the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City each year.

Gary Ofenloch

Gary Ofenloch is currently principal tubist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the Utah Symphony. A native of Chicago, Mr. Ofenloch grew up admiring tubist Arnold Jacobs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, whose influence led him to set his sights on a musical career.

Mr. Ofenloch earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. While attending the conservatory, he was a founding member of the Grammy Award winning New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, under the direction of Gunther Schuller. In 1974, the Ragtime Ensemble was honored as guest performers at the White House under then-President Gerald Ford.

As well as performing with orchestras on national and international tours, Gary is an avid chamber musician. He has toured with the Canadian Brass and has performed on numerous chamber recordings including the internationally acclaimed Empire Brass Quintet recording of "Gabrielli: Music for Brass".

While on leave of absence from the Utah Symphony in 1989, Mr. Ofenloch was appointed Acting Principal Tubist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the invitation of Maestro Seiji Ozawa. Gary has performed on numerous Boston Symphony and Boston Pops recordings and can be heard most recently with the Boston Symphony on the soundtrack to "Saving Private Ryan".

Mr. Ofenloch has also served on the faculty at Boston University, Northwestern University, University of Utah, University of Connecticut, and University of Lowell.

For more information, visit www.parke.net/references/gary_ofenloch.htm.