September 17, 2012
James Miller

Associate Principal Trombone, Los Angeles Philharmonic

James Miller is the associate principal trombonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a position he has held since 1999.  His duties include performing on alto, tenor and bass trombone, tenor tuba and bass trumpet.  His previous orchestral experience includes the North Carolina Symphony, the Long Island Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic.  Mr. Miller earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his Masters of Music degree from the Juilliard School where he was a scholarship student of Per Brevig.

His performance experience includes the Silk Road Ensemble, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Ensemble ST-X, the Michael Buble big band and with a variety of jazz, rock, ska and latin ensembles. He has been a participant in the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and the Ohai Music Festival. As a composer, he has had world premieres in New York’s Lincoln Center and continues to perform his own works in solo performances throughout the country.  Mr. Miller serves on the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts, California Institute of the Arts and Cal State at Long Beach. Mr. Miller is a Conn/Selmer clinician and has a CD entitled ‘from coast to coast’ on All Barks Dog records.

October 11, 2012
Dr. Jonathan Whitaker

University of Alabama

Dr. Jonathan Whitaker joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in the fall of 2009. At Alabama, Whitaker’s students have been tremendously successful in national and international solo competitions including the Eastern Trombone Workshop National Solo Competition, the International Trombone Association’s solo competitions and the Alessi Seminar. The University of Alabama Trombone Choir has given performances at the 2010 Eastern Trombone Workshop and the 2011 International Trombone Festival in Nashville, TN. Whitaker has also appeared as a performer and clinician at the Eastern Trombone workshop and two International Trombone Festivals.

As a soloist, Whitaker can be heard on the 2011 release of “Glass Bead” on Albany Records, which includes David Maslanka’s Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble under the baton of Kenneth Ozzello. He has appeared as a soloist with all of 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.

As a chamber musician, Whitaker can be heard on Dee Stewart’s CD entitled D+ (Dee Plus) performing with the Indiana University Trombone Faculty and on two recordings by the Stentorian Consort Trombone Quartet. He is also a member of the Alabama Brass Quintet.

Whitaker is currently Principal Trombone of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly with the Alabama Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony (PA), Mobile Symphony (AL) and has also held positions and performed with the 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). In 2011, Whitaker performed with the New York Philharmonic on concerts featuring Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.

Whitaker serves on the faculty of the Alessi Seminar. In 2005, he was selected as one of sixteen participants for the Seminar and was a featured soloist twice that year. Since 2005, Whitaker has served as the chief administrator for the Seminar and is honored to now be on the faculty and to host the 2011 Alessi Seminar at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Whitaker holds degrees in trombone performance from Murray State University and the University of Minnesota and the Doctor of Music degree in Brass Pedagogy at Indiana University where he served as Associate Instructor of Trombone from 2001-2004.  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 an S.E. Shires Performing Artist and plays Greg Black Mouthpieces exclusively.

March 25, 2013
Casey Maday

7:30 PM, UCC Recital Hall

Casey Maday, trombonist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Northern Illinois University, a master of music in performance from DePaul University and has completed doctoral course work in Brass Pedagogy at Indiana University.

As an active performer he has worked with ensembles such as the Monterrey Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Dayton Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Concertante di Chicago, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Trombone Quartet, Asbury Brass Quintet, The Stanley Paul Orchestra, and many others.  In 2011 Casey made his solo debut with the Whiting Park Festival Orchestra.

A founding member of the Chicago Trombone Quartet, Casey performed at the Eastern Trombone Workshop in 2006 as the winner of the National Trombone Quartet Competition. Included in the performance was the World Premiere of Rob Deemer’s Shock and Awe.  The same year the quartet was also a semi-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Casey has taught private and group brass lessons in a variety of musical styles since 1996 around the Chicagoland area and is a Teaching Artist at Drake University, trombone faculty at the Des Moines Symphony Academy, as well as the coach for the Iowa All State Orchestra Low Brass. Many of Casey’s students have advanced to All State Band and Orchestra as well as continued their musical careers at such prestigious schools as the Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, University of Illinois, and University of North Texas.  Casey’s primary teachers include: Peter Ellefson, Mark Fisher, and Charlie Vernon. Casey resides in Des Moines with his American Bulldog Floyd.

April 23, 2013
Dr. Jemmie Robertson

7:30 PM, UCC Recital Hall

American trombonist Dr. Jemmie Robertson is an active soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. He is pleased to be joining the music faculty at Eastern Illinois University in the Fall of 2009. He is a busy musician in the Chicago area where he has performed with numerous ensembles including the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Music of the Baroque, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Philharmonic, Chicagoland Pops, Illinois Philharmonic, Elgin Symphony, Rockford Symphony, Northwest Indiana Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Kenosha Symphony, Quad Cities Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Peoria Symphony, Lincoln Park Brass, Tower Brass and others. Jemmie joins the EIU faculty from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where he has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and taught Low Brass since 2005.

His debut solo CD, titled “A New Day Dawning” was released on the MSR Classics Label (MS 1182) in September 2008. The recording features recent and previously unrecorded works for Trombone and Piano (Yoko Yamada-Selvaggio, Piano).

Mr. Robertson is a founding member of ProBono (a Chicago based professional trombone quartet) and is also a member of the Artemis Brass. In the summers he enjoys performing with the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado where, in the summer of 2008, he appeared as a soloist performing the Albrechtsberger Alto Trombone Concerto.

In 2006, Dr. Robertson completed a DM degree in performance at Northwestern University where he studied with Chicago Symphony Orchestra trombonist Michael Mulcahy. While in residence, he conducted the Northwestern Trombone Choir and served as Assistant Conductor of the Northwestern Brass Choir.

Honors include being selected as a featured soloist and participant for the first Joseph Alessi Seminar in 1999 and then again at the 2006 Alessi Seminar in Fossano, Italy. In 1995, Mr. Robertson was the winner of the Rocky Mountain Concerto Competition. In the summer of 2000 he performed with the National Orchestral Institute where he worked extensively with the principal trombonists of the Boston, Baltimore, and National Symphony Orchestras. In 2004, Jemmie conducted and performed with the Northwestern Trombones at the International Trombone Festival in Ithaca, New York.

Dr. Robertson has previously been a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (2000) and the U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band (1996-1999) with whom he also performed extensively on Euphonium and Bass Trombone. He received a Master of Music from Yale University, where he studied with John Swallow and Scott Hartman, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Northern Colorado where he studied with Buddy Baker.

On July 7^th, 2007 Jemmie and his wife Christine welcomed the arrival of their first child, James Donal Robertson.

In February 2007 Jemmie was honored to participate in the World Premiere performances of Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Harbison’s Umbrian Landscape with Saint with the Chicago Chamber Musicians.

In March 2008 Jemmie performed the Bourgeois Trombone Concerto with the Augustana Symphonic Band, directed by Dr. James Lambrecht, on their Midwest tour. In June 2008, Jemmie performed with the Cramer Memorial Trombone choir at the International Trombone Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah and joined that ensemble in performing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the nationally broadcast program “Music and The Spoken Word”. In June 2009, Jemmie performed and participated in the Gene Pokorny Low Brass Seminar in Redlands, CA.