ETSU Trombones visit North Carolina Trombone Festival

On Jan. 21, the ETSU Trombone Studio made a trip to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to participate in the 26^th Annual North Carolina Trombone Festival.

The festival is designed for trombonists of all ages and skill levels and featured international soloist Yu Tamaki Hoso.

The event hosted several hundred trombone enthusiasts from across North Carolina and bordering states. The day-long event consisted of performances, presentations, exhibits, clinics, university and high school trombone ensembles, masterclasses and more.

The ETSU Trombone Studio performed at the event, while also getting to take in more knowledge about their instruments from the classes and events going on throughout the day.

Liz Liss, an Instrumental Music Education major and trombone studio member at ETSU, spoke on their experience at the festival, specifically with masterclasses.

“There were many masterclasses about a lot of different things. The ones I got to go to were about things like getting better at jazz, alternating warm-up routines and even cyber security,” stated Liss. “I also was lucky enough to catch Yu Tamaki Hoso’s masterclass, and these type of classes by professionals are always great because we get to watch students perform and get live feedback from the professionals.”

Yu Tamaki Hoso is a Japanese solo trombonist, who currently resides in Denmark. Hoso is a chamber and orchestra musician, educator, entrepreneur, published author and producer. Recent performance highlights include solo recital tours throughout the major cities of Japan, and the U.S. at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and more than 20 other prestigious US institutions, and concerto appearances with Japan Century Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo City Philharmonic, Tokyo New City Orchestra, The US Army Band “Pershing’s Own” and more, per his website.

Festivals based around specific instruments are quite beneficial for specialized instrumentalists when wanting to get better at their musical crafts. ETSU hosts several events similar to the North Carolina Trombone Festival, such as their upcoming ETSU Brass Day on February 11, 2023 and their Woodwind Day on February 18, 2023.

For more information on the ETSU Trombone Studio, visit them on Instagram @etsutrombones.