CSU - Dept of Music, Theatre and Dance

High Altitude Trombone Quartet

This review is from the Spring, 2000 issue of the Colorado State University Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance publication.

High Altitude Trombones

Faculty members William Runyan and John Lueck are performers on a recently released compact disk recording by the "High Altitude Trombones" that features music from four centuries for trombones and organ. The High Altitude Trombone Quartet, an ensemble based in Colorado Springs, is comprised of trombonists with distinguished and varied professional backgrounds. They have met together in Denver and Colorado Springs to rehearse and perform, and performed at the International Trombone Workshop in Las Vegas. In addition to Colorado State faculty member Runyan, the recording features Denver University faculty member Joseph Martin, and Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra members William Holst and Jeremy Van Hoy. In addition to performing, Runyan also wrote the Historic Introduction and most of the program notes on the release.

The recording was made in Colorado Springs in 1998 and released in the Fall of 1999. There is a small but significant repertoire for trombones and organ, and for this recording the quartet solicited the services of nationally-known organist and teacher Lee Garrett, who is a 1969 graduate of Colorado State and currently a professor of organ at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. He accompanies the quartet on a fine Letourneau tracker pipe organ constructed in authentic eighteenth-century style in the sonorous, solid stone sanctuary of First Christian Church in Colorado Springs - a perfect acoustic environment for the selected compositions.

Two of the most significant compositions, combining four trombones and organ, are by the important seventeenth-century German composer, Heinrich Schutz, and are solo motets for baritone voice. Dr. John Lueck, professor of voice at Colorado State since 1975, is the featured soloist on both of these extended compositions that, in addition to the long vocal sections, include short "sinfonia" for trombones and organ. "John has a wonderfully appropriate voice for these Baroque solo motets, and brings to their performance a nuance that originates in a scholarly understanding of their style," says Runyan. "We were fortunate to be able to collaborate with so fine a musician."

High Altitude Trombones' member Bill Holst, who works in the burgeoning computer industry in Colorado Springs, is a 1969 graduate of Colorado State in mathematics. While at Colorado State, Bill was one of the most active and talented trombonists in the jazz bands and symphonic band in the then Department of Music, and was a fraternity brother of Garrett.

In addition to compositions by such luminaries as Mozart, Bruckner, Gabrieli, and Ives, the recording features world premieres of two compositions commissioned by the quartet especially for this release. Nationally-known composer Robert Spillman, a faculty member at the University of Colorado, composed the signature piece for the recording, entitled All Day Meeting and Dinner on the Ground, based upon folk hymns that Spillman was familiar with from his native Kentucky. Finally, yet another Colorado State connection is found in the last track on the CD, an arrangement for organ and trombones of the title tune by Henry Mancini for the 1967 film, Two for the Road. The arrange was commissioned from one of Colorado State's distinguished music alums, Tony Klatka, who was an outstanding jazz performer at Colorado State during the 1960s, and who went on to play trumpet and arrange with such world-famous jazz musicians as Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, and the group, Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Runyan said that the recording will be distributed nationally, and that the group expects a very positive reception from the trombone fraternity. "This recording fills a niche in the repertoire that has hitherto not been explored, and I had a great time working on this project with such fine musicians. It was an honor."