Tarleton Trumpet Ensemble
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — For the fourth straight year, Tarleton State University’s trumpet ensemble advances to the prestigious National Trumpet Competition (NTC).
Tarleton’s ensemble — six student musicians — will compete against 29 other colleges and universities March 13-16 at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, marking only the fourth time any Tarleton music ensemble has advanced to the final round of a national competition.
Led by Associate Professor of Trumpet, Dr. Brian Walker, the ensemble will perform his arrangement of “Scheherazade” composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The piece, originally a symphonic suite composed in 1888 and based on “One Thousand and One Nights” (also known as The Arabian Nights), is considered one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular works.
Tarleton is the only Division II school among the 30 ensembles selected for this year’s NTC out of approximately 100 entries. Students began rehearsing competition music in August, fine-tuning the arrangement ahead of the upcoming NTC.
Student ensemble members areAkira Okamoto, senior music education major from Frisco, Texas; Tim Wilson, senior music education major from Midlothian, Texas; Taylor Welch, sophomore music performance major from Fort Worth; Danny Norton, junior music performance major from West, Texas; Matt Edwards, junior music education major from North Richland Hills, Texas; and William Brown, freshman music education major from Eastland, Texas.
In addition to Tarleton’s Trumpet Ensemble being selected for the NTC, Okamoto was one of 60 student musicians chosen from 300 entries to compete in the Undergraduate Solo Division. He will be competing with the first movement of the “Concerto in F Minor” by Oskar Bohme.
Both Okamoto and Wilson are familiar with the NTC as they have been a member of all three Tarleton Trumpet Ensembles advancing to the national competition since their sophomore year in 2016.
“I am very proud and excited for these students to represent Tarleton for the fourth year in a row at this competition,” Walker said. “As with any competition, it is difficult to continually repeat success year after year, and these musicians have made the commitment to do just that. This competition is our ‘March Madness,’ and we look forward to see how we stack up with the great competitors from other schools.”
For more information about bands and select ensembles at Tarleton, visit www.tarleton.edu/band.
Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.
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Contact: Dr. Brian Walker, Associate Professor of Trumpet
254-968-0744
[email protected]
