Applause fills the theatre as the Tyler Junior College Trombone Choir plays their last note of “Dissymmetry.” Months of hard work and dedication have come together to prepare them, not just for this concert, but their showcase performance at the end of the month.
“When we were selected to perform, we knew we needed to kind of amp our game up. So we’ve been practicing all semester, Monday nights and Friday mornings,” Heather Mensch, music department chair and trombone professor, said. “The steps that we’ve taken this month of April to get them out and performing in different venues, adjusting to different atmospheres, putting them in different pressure situations to perform so that when they get there to ITF, they’re just going to relax and do their thing.”
The TJC Trombone Choir is one of 19 student and community ensembles invited to perform at the International Trombone Festival of 2024. ITF is the largest trombone event held annually that features artists and student ensembles while hosting workshops and guest speakers, and an open exhibit hall. On May 29, ITF will be held at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, until June 1.
“At the International Trombone Festival, it’s professionals, world-renowned international artists do come, and then they have student ensembles perform like us,” Mensch said. “We took samples of some of the [recordings] and sent them and we were chosen as the only Junior College and Community College group to perform.”
As TJC makes history, new pieces of music literature come as a result of it.
“So when I did our proposal, I told them that, one of the things that would make us stand out would be that I would commission new works for trombone choir, so I had to kind of go and creatively find my friends and find people I knew that would write for us,” Mensch said.
The choir is playing seven pieces during their 30-minute performance. Five out of seven pieces were composed specifically for the TJC Trombone Choir and will make their world debut at ITF.
The first piece originally composed is “Three Gossips” by Cynthia Van Maanen of Interlochen Center for the Arts.
“She let me kind of design. She wrote it specifically for us and kind of what we were thinking, where I wanted it in the program, exactly what I wanted the students to do, what kinds of things to show off, some cool trombone effects to show off,” Mensch said.
“Passage” by Matt Neff is the second piece originally written for the choir. Mensch reached out to Neff after the Trombone Choir played one of his works at the Texas Music Educators Association.
“He wrote it to kind of talk about the passage of time and when you have mentors and family in your life and how you’re kind of reflective, it’s kind of that ‘ahh’ moment,” Mensch said. “It features a couple of students, kind of passing the melody around, but everybody gets the melody at some point and it’s just beautiful.”
“I.T.F. (Intrepid Trombone Funk)” is composed by TJC’s very own Micah Bell, Trumpet and Jazz Professor. The work is filled with solos and leaves the tune stuck in your head for days.
“His style is very unique and I knew he would produce something that is super fun, but also kind of very, ear-catching, we call them earworms. So it has a great melody that just really gets kind of stuck in your head,” Mensch said. “That features a couple of solos and that’s when we pulled the rhythm section out.”
Written by John Wasson, “Dissymmetry” stands out as the fan-favorite piece between performers in the ensemble.
“‘Dissymmetry’ is meant to kind of show different directions as things go. You think of things being symmetrical that line up, so now dissymmetry means we’re not always lining up,” Mensch said. “We’re kind of going in different directions, but it’s a super cool Afro-Cuban piece, the students have just really fallen in love with it. It’s the perfect piece to end with because everybody gets a melody, everybody gets high stuff. It kind of passes the fun all the way around to everybody.”
conducts the choir as they practice for their send off concert.
The Trombone Choir premiered their repertoire to their supporters in the
Jean Browne Theatre on May 6.
The student musicians within the choir have been closer than ever since finding out about their performance at ITF.
“I feel like we’re all so close, that we can say whatever we want to each other. We can criticize each other and know that like, we don’t mean to insult each other, but we’re trying to grow together. We’re just a big family. I really liked that,” Hilton Bounds, sophomore tenor trombone of the TJC Trombone Choir, said. “We’re all brothers and sisters. We work hard when we have to, but it’s Raising Canes every week, Brahms every week, and we’re a nuisance everywhere we go. In a good way, we’re funny.”
Mensch shared a similar view.
“What I really love is that our students have kind of bonded together and that’s what made it fun,” Mensch said. “I mean, if there hadn’t been a different mix of personalities this maybe wouldn’t have been quite as successful, but because the students have really bought in and they want it to be successful I think that’s what’s made it great.”
