Now, for my first music-related post. Many trombonists around the world were shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely death of Steve Witser at age 48! For many years the Associate Principal Trombone of the Cleveland Orchestra, myself and others were quite confounded at how such a great player could be continuously looked over whilst the CO went through countless auditions and trial periods for the Principal Trombone job (only just recently settled with Massimo La Rosa being granted tenure).

Nevertheless, myself and those same others were happy to hear when Witser gained the Principal Trombone position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, succeeding Ralph Sauer after 30+ years in the position. (FYI – I met Ralph when he was in Australia for the 2007 Melbourne International Festival of Brass and managed to have a 2-hour chat and beer(s) with him – a great player and a gentleman to boot!)

A few years ago, I reviewed (for the Online Trombone Journal) a fantastic recording of a trombone quartet featuring Steve and the late Ray Premru. My closing comments in that review lamented that Premru’s death signalled the end of this quartet; a tragedy now compounded with Witser’s own passing. As my own little tribute to them both, I have included the link to this review below. Please read it through, and even better, buy the recording itself!

Until next time,
Adam Meyer

Review: “Too Scared To Play”