Featuring Renowned Guest Soloists in Concert With Our Instrumentalists

Starting in fall 2007, Juniata replaced its successful "Honors Band" program with "Featured Instrument Weekends." Once or twice per year we feature a renowned guest soloist in concert with our instrumentalists. We have been fortunate to host on campus:

  • Alto saxophone virtuoso MSM (Ret.) Dale Underwood, 30-year soloist with the United States Navy Band
  • Guest tubist Tony Clements (San Jose, California)
  • Guest trombonist MSG Mark Bowling, principal trombonist of the United States Army Field Band
  • Guest conductor/renowned wind band composer, Dr. Frank Ticheli, University of Southern California
  • Guest euphonium artist Mark Brumbach (Oley, Pennsylvania)

Weekends Typically Include:

  • A guest residency and concerto performance by the artist
  • An opportunity for area high school and middle school student players to:
    • Play in a Massed chamber music experience coached by our guest soloist and by James Latten, Director of the Juniata Wind Symphony.
    • Attend educational brass sessions and trumpet demonstrations by the soloist.
    • Take a private lesson with the artist. (This is separate and optional, by special arrangement. An extra fee will be charged.)
    • Audition (optional) for a chance to be coached by the artist in a Select High School Chamber Quintet—an experience that will be one of the musical highlights of a lifetime. Two trumpets, one horn, one trombone and one tuba will be chosen.

Application forms are available from your band director and on the Juniata College website:

Download Form

2012 Schedule of Events

Pre-rehearsal, Saturday March 31

  • 8:30 - 9:00 a.m., registration, lobby of Rosenberger Auditorium
  • 9:00 -11 a.m., Massed Brass Chamber rehearsal and instructional session (without guest soloist)
  • 11 a.m., Voluntary auditions to determine the “top five” players that will comprise the select high school quintet that will work with Ms. Saxton. This audition will utilize the piece “Gavotte,” from Suite for Unaccompanied Violoncello No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, by J.S.Bach (printed by Hal Leonard Publications in the “Canadian Brass 14 Collected Intermediate Quintets” folio.
  • Auditionees must supply their own music. (Photocopies are illegal.)
  • 1-3 p.m., The Juniata College Orchestra will hold a dress rehearsal in the afternoon; you are welcome to stay and listen! (You may opt for lunch on your own in Ellis Hall.)
  • Students and directors will be notified by email on March 31 with the names of the five selected quintet students. Music (one or two selections) will be immediately mailed to the students’ directors on April 2.

Friday, April 20

  • 1:45 p.m., The five Select High School Quintet Members arrive
  • 2-3 p.m., Register and rehearse with Ms. Saxton
  • 3 p.m., All other massed brass players arrive, register
  • 3:15-5:15 p.m., Rehearse the massed brass piece (full rehearsals as well as sub-sectionals)
  • 5:15-6:15 p.m., All students go to supper (included in fee)
  • 6:15-7 p.m., Massed brass rehearsal on stage
  • 7 p.m. All students dismissed except for the five selected brass quintet students
  • 7:10-8:15 p.m., Select Brass Quintet students rehearse their piece
  • 8:15 p.m., Quintet students are dismissed

Saturday, April 21

Select High School Brass Quintet members:

  • 8:45 a.m., Arrive
  • 9 -10:15 a.m., Rehearsal with Ms. Saxton
  • 10:30-noon, Sit in (not playing) with the Juniata College Wind Symphony during their dress rehearsal.
  • Noon-1:30 p.m., Lunch (included)
  • 1:30-2:45 p.m., Campus tour
  • 3–4:30 p.m., Participate in massed brass rehearsals and sub-sectionals with Ms. Saxton
  • 4:45–5:15 p.m., Rehearsal with Ms. Saxton

Massed Brass Ensemble members:

  • prior to 3:00 p.m., The Juniata College Bookstore, in the basement of Ellis Hall, will be open from noon to 4 p.m.
  • 3–4:30 p.m., Participate in rehearsals and sub-sectionals with Ms. Saxton
  • 4:30-5 p.m., view dress rehearsal of Select High School Brass Quintet
  • 5:15-6:30 p.m. Supper (included in fee)
  • 6:45-7:15 p.m. All students change into concert attire, then proceed to seating area

CONCERT: Saturday, April 21, 7:30 P.M.

Rosenberger Auditorium, Halbritter Center
The Massed Brass Quintet piece will be performed right after
intermission, followed by the Select Quintet Piece.

Guest Trumpet Artist: Judith Saxton

Lauded as a “virtuoso player and superb soloist”, Judith Saxton is Trumpet Artist Faculty and Brass Coordinator at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and enjoys an international career as a versatile and sought-after orchestral, solo and chamber performer and clinician. In the 2010 season, she performed principal with the St. Louis Symphony on a set of subscription concerts. This season she is principal of the New York Women’s Ensemble, a new orchestra whose Carnegie hall debut concert received critical acclaim in a NY times review. Ms. Saxton is on Eastern Music Festival faculty and principal and soloist with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. She performs regularly with the North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Roanoke and Maryland symphonies and an array of chamber organizations on the eastern seaboard. A Conn-Selmer clinician, Judith is an active recitalist with both piano and organ, and a frequent soloist with bands and orchestras across the globe. This 2011-2012 season she is guest soloist and clinician for four universities and trumpet festivals in Pennsylvania. For several seasons, she was principal and soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Chicago Chamber Orchestra and with Wichita and Key West/South Florida Symphonies concurrently. She performed frequently with the Chicago and Grant Park Symphonies and the CSO brass quintet and held full-time spots in seven Chicago orchestras. Judith was also in demand for numerous shows, commercials, recording sessions, big bands and combos. Chamber credits include the Southeast Chamber Brass, UNCSA Brass Quintet, Jazz Septet, Wichita Brass quintet, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Sierra Brass (Japan tours), Musica Harmonica (Brazil tour), Tromba Mundi, Millar and Monarch Brass ensembles. Her most recent recording Contest and Concert Pieces for Trumpet was issued free to the 5,500 International Trumpet Guild (ITG) members in March, 2011 and has been praised enthusiastically as a “beautifully performed and helpful resource” by performers and educators alike. Other recordings are with Crystal, Koss, Proto, Novitas, MSR and Moravian Music Foundation labels. Ms. Saxton served on the Fulbright National Screening Committee, holds board memberships with ITG, National Trumpet Competition and served several terms for the International Women’s Brass Conference. She has written articles for the Brass Herald and ITG Journal. Her degrees are in Music Education from Mansfield University and Master of Music from Northwestern University. Saxton’s teachers include Vincent Cichowicz, Arnold Jacobs, William Scarlett, Susan Slaughter and Michael Galloway. Most recently, she was Artist Faculty for Lieksa Brass Week, Finland, and Associate Professor at Wichita State University. She taught previously at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Illinois Wesleyan and Northeastern Illinois Universities. Her students can be found performing and teaching across the U.S. and in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Norway.

Please Note the Following:

  • Deadline for receipt of all application materials is March 23, 2012. Fees are to be paid at the time of application. All students (up to a total of 60 players) are automatically accepted for the large-group experience (fee: $55, which includes Friday evening and Saturday evening suppers). Each participant must supply legal copies of the following chamber literature for the massed-brass portion of this event: "Canadian Brass 14 Collected Intermediate Quintets,” printed by Hal Leonard Publications.
  • The five selected student members of the Select High School Quintet will incur an additional fee of $65, bringing their total for the weekend to $120.
  • Participants must attend all rehearsals.
  • Student participants must be in grades 6-12 during the 2011-2012 school year, and possess the maturity required to focus and contribute positively (only) to rehearsals of 60-90 minutes in length.
  • There is no on-campus housing available for this event. Students are to return home each evening. However, teachers/directors of the five select brass quintet student members may wish to consider utilizing Huntingdon area hotels for the evenings of April 20 and 21. We have reserved enough rooms for the quintet members and their teachers, and will provide more information to you at the pre-rehearsal on March 31.
  • Band directors send applications by March 23, 2012 to:

Juniata College Brass Weekend
c/o Dr. James Latten
1700 Moore Street
Huntingdon, PA 16652

For further information, please contact Dr. Latten at: 814-641-3471 • latten@juniata.edu