Oft, Toby

Trombonist from Portland, Oregon, who began performing at six years of age under the watchful eye of his father, a music educator by the name of Michael Oft. He attended IndianaUniversity, Mount Hood Community College, and Northwestern University. His teachers included Joseph Alessi, Scott Hartman, Michael Mulcahy, Roger Rocco, and John Swallow.

After free-lancing for a while in Chicago, Illinois, he joined the Florida West Coast Symphony as their principal trombonist in September of 2002.

In the summer of 2006, he occupied the same position with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

He and pianist Elan McMahan gave a trombone recital at Rancho Bernardo High School on 27^thSeptember 2007.

In September 2008, he became the principal trombonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Other groups with whom he has performed include the BSO Brass Quintet, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.

On 9^th November 2008, he was the featured soloist when the San Diego Symphony performed Launy Grondahl’s “Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra”. The concert opened with Jennifer Higdon’s “Blue Cathedral” and concluded with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Andante Cantabile” and “Symphony No. 2, Op. 17” (“Little Russian”).

Toby appeared at the Steve Witser Memorial on 6^th July 2009 where he and other brass musicians performed “Nimrod” from Sir Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

On 27^th June 2011, he and other members of the Tanglewood faculty gave a recital at Trinity Church in Lenox, Massachusetts. Their program comprised excerpts from Franz Cibulka’s “Suite No. 7 for Trombone and Piano”, Arcangelo Corelli’s “Sonata in F major”, Jean-Michel Defaye’s “After a Manner of Debussy”, Eric Ewazen’s “Pastorale”, David Gillingham’s “Sonata for Bass Trombone and Piano”, Frank Martin’s “Ballade” and Bill Pearce’s arrangement of “Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho”.

He and pianist Ling Leng gave a guest recital at Jacksonville State University in Alabama on 16^thSeptember 2011. On 17^th September 2011, he gave a master class at St. Stephen’s Anglican Catholic Church in Athens, Georgia.

The BSO Brass Quintet interpreted “Elegy for Mippy II” by Leonard Bernstein, “Music for Brass Quintet” by Gunther Schuller, “Oompah Suite for Horn and Tuba” by Jan Bach, “Quintette Victoria” and “Three Slavonic Madrigals” by Ivan Jevtic, and six pieces by Giles Farnby, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center on 20^th April 2012.

On 15^th May 2012, Toby gave a guest trombone recital in the Ellensburg Music Building at Central Washington University.

He and trumpeter Jay Chen performed Music a la Carte in the Memorial Union Lounge at Oregon State University on 18^th May 2012.

Recordings on which he has appeared include an Aaron Copland CD for the Naxos American Classics series and Live in Boston with Chris Botti and the Boston Pops.

In the field of music education, he has taught at the Boston University College of Fine Arts and the New England Conservatory of Music, and given master classes at Kennesaw State University, Oregon State University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oregon.

Sources:

Oft, Toby

Navigate Feenotes

Search Feenotes

Please donate to keep the site alive