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This item is for (4) 1/2 hour lessons with Carlsbad High School Band's new Fall 2024 Student Teacher Berk Schneider!

I am excited to engage with the diverse student interests that comprise the Carlsbad School District and contribute to the music programs. My aim is to shape tomorrow's music leaders while approaching adjudication, instruction, and performance with an equal measure of rigor and inventiveness. As a finalist in the International Trombone Association’s Robert Marsteller Competition, honorable mention in the Trombone Quartet Competition, and Lewis Van Haney Philharmonic Prize my pedagogical approach stems from the legacy of Emory Remington at Oberlin Conservatory where I earned my Bachelor of Music (B.M.) with James DeSano, retired Principal Trombone of the Cleveland Orchestra. While at Oberlin, I studied briefly with Robin Eubanks, the premier jazz trombonist of his generation. I completed my Master's studies (M.M.) with Allen Barnhill at the Shepherd School of Music and Uwe Dierksen in Germany, as well as studying briefly with Per Brevig, James Box, Michael Powell, and Stephanie Richards. More recently, I served as the Trombone Choir Director at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory and Del Norte High School, and am now teaching at UC San Diego where I am a doctoral candidate (EGD 05/2024). 

Allow me to share a bit about myself. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a diverse international musical career, from Schauspiel Frankfurt, Carnegie Hall, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Guangzhou Opera House, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, The Houston Toyota Center, and the Berlin Philharmonie I’ve had the opportunity to work with award winning musicians and creatives from around the world. Collaborations include performances with Charles Curtis, Andreas Dohmen, Alexander Fehling, Margareta Ferek-Petric, Mark Dresser, Nelson Freire, Valery Gergiev, Erin Graham, Heiner Goebbels, Arthur Gottschalk, Philip Glass, Joshua Bell, Josh Groban, Georgia Koumará, Helmut Lachenmann, Lei Liang, Alvin Lucier, Mauro Maur, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Enno Poppe, Julian Rachlin, Larry Rachleff, Stephanie Richards, Roger Reynolds, Helmuth Rilling, Steven Schick, Gerard Schwarz, Jose Serebrier, Alex Stephenson, Leon Spierer, Robert Spano, Rand Steiger, Wilfrido Terrazas, Carl Topilow, Yulan Yu, Beat Furrer, Valentin Ruckebier, Nasim Khorassani, and many more, including members of the Akron, Firelands, La Jolla, and Houston Symphonies. Furthermore, I have had the opportunity to showcase my talents with ensembles at the Eastern Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Festival Napa Valley and have participated in four international tours with the Orchestra of the Americas, performing and teaching in South America, Europe, and Asia. 

In Europe, I played in the Darmstadt Summer Course and with Ensemble Modern in the Cresc Biennale Frankfurt, Klangspuren Festival Schwaz, the Kurt Weill Festival, Playsonic Festival, Happy New Ears Festival, Hessischer Rundfunk radio broadcasts, and other projects. I have also worked regularly with the Staatstheater Mainz, Schauspiel Frankfurt and Sinfonieorchester Bad Nauheim. A regular musician with contemporary music ensembles in Austria and Germany, I performed "Antipoden" for solo trombone and ensemble by Gerald Resch with Ensemble Zeitfluss in Vienna and premiered Ulrich Rasche’s "Sieben gegen Theben/Antigone" in Frankfurt. While being rolled on a 3x4 draisine through Frankfurt Central Station, I made a solo appearance during Studio Libeskind's "One day in Life" concert series, performing Berio's "Sequenza V".

Praised for my "deep and probing" musicality by the San Diego Story, I have also been lauded as a "valiant proponent" of newly composed music by the San Diego Union Tribune, making appearances as an international soloist with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, Ensemble Zeitfuss, Conservatorio Superior Nacional De Música Orquesta, and Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of France College. My solo trombone tour, titled "Night and Day," which took place from May to September 2022, was warmly received in both San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. The tour showcased the debut of four engaging world premieres for trombone and electronics: "Catch" by Erin Graham (a U.S. native), "Ilha Grande" co-composed by Nasim Khorassani (Iranian born) and myself, "Seg" by Sang Song (Korea born), and the virtuosic "Music for Trombone, Piano, and Percussion" by Mike Svoboda. As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, I had the privilege of premiering a solo trombone concerto titled "Frozen Grief" by Sang Song, a Harvard Fromm Music Foundation awardee. This remarkable performance  took place in December 2022 with the La Jolla Symphony. 

This upcoming summer, I am thrilled to announce the release of my debut album, ElectroCognition: A Journey Through the Intersection of AI and Electronic Music with eccentric improvisers Douglas Osmun and Joey Bourdeau. The project is meant to illuminate how we, as improvisatory musicians, actively engage contingency plans in order to balance feedback loops between ourselves and our instruments. As a trio, we have taken this idea a step further by developing an AI hub that analyzes socially embodied cognition, creating a sort of symbiotic animism that unites us with machines. Furthermore, I am currently engaged in a creative partnership with the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Roger Reynolds, who has recently been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Together, we are working on crafting an unaccompanied trombone solo as part of a groundbreaking project, reimagining the imagE - imAge set album.

Within the domain of research, my project, known as the Musicians Auditory Perception Project (MAP), delves into the exploration of engagement, perception, and andragogy within collaborative creative processes. This research endeavor has undergone rigorous peer review, leading to its publication and presentation at conferences held in both Montreal and New York City. These conferences were led by notable figures such as Stephen McAdams and were hosted in collaboration with The Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project as well as the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). 

 Upcoming publications include "Timbrenauts: Creative Explorations in Timbre Space (2024)," co-authored with Yuval Adler. This project involves the utilization of experimental designs derived from timbre perception research to construct data models that guide the creation of innovative compositions for the unconventional instrumental pairing of cello and trombone. This past summer, we had the opportunity to present our preliminary data at the 6th CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium on Orchestration Research in Strasbourg, France. My dissertation, Scaffolding Metacognitive Self-efficacy Models in Post-Secondary Music Andragogy, further develops this research, creating innovative teaching approaches tailored to a wide range of adult music students via evidence-based tools that assist intermediate and experienced musicians while addressing the challenges associated with memory, performance anxiety, and social learning during the creative process.

A major focus in my graduate education and professional development has been to lead and participate in academic support programs that make music education accessible for all students. Whether I’m serving undergraduate or graduate students as an Associate Instructor within the UC San Diego Music Department, teaching as a low brass music clinician in local public schools, my focus has been to invest in the community in which I live. 

As a result of these efforts, I have taught over five hundred undergraduate students and thirty graduate instructional assistants in the subjects of Introduction to Western Music (MUS4), Fundamentals of Music Series (MUS1A-B-C, theory focus), Popular Electronica (MUS15), Electronic Music (MUS6), and trombone pedagogy/andragogy during my 6 years of collegiate teaching. I also maintain a private studio and enjoy teaching brass instruments (trombone, trumpet, euphonium, tuba) to beginner, intermediate, and advanced players in O’side. With over 15 years of experience teaching privately in public schools and preparatory colleges, many of my students have gone on to pursue music professionally. My former trombone students have been recruited by the Fred Fox School of Music at The University of Arizona, Sam Houston School of Music, San Diego State University, and Moores School of Music in Houston. Lessons can be taught via Zoom or in-person at my Oceanside studio or in-home.

Item Special Note

You will be given contact information for Berk Schneider if you win this item. Auction Director will also provide your name and contact information to him after payment is received.