Fantasy For Trombone Quintet

This piece began for me as a labor of love. While I’m a tuba player by trade, my years serving as an instrumentalist in an Army Reserve Band gave me the opportunity to become a trombone player and find a love for playing bass trombone. Whether playing in a jazz band or coming across various examples of trombone ensemble writing in concerts or on the Internet, I really became fascinated with the sound of trombone ensembles - the brassy nature of the timbre of the instrument combined with the tenor register creates a rich, thick texture that really isn’t replicated by any other type of ensemble.

As I began writing, I thought back to the qualities of other such pieces I’ve heard that really stuck with me - layered parts and thick harmonies. That was the direction I wanted to go with this piece. The great thing about writing for an ensemble of all one instrument is the ability to cross voices without affecting the overall sound that much. As a result, “Fantasy” is written in a way that all five players have their moments to shine with lead lines written in strong tessiturae.