Christopher Davis and Brian Hecht take first place in 2009

The final round of the 2009 Zellmer-Minnesota Orchestra Trombone Competition was held on May 9th at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. For the first time in the Competition’s history, we had a tie for the Grand Prize. Receiving $3,750 in prize money was bass trombonist Christopher Davis, who received his Master’s Degree from Northwestern University and Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois Wesleyan University. He is currently playing with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. This year’s other winner of $3,750 in prize money was bass trombonist Brian Hecht, who is finishing up his Master’s Degree at Northwestern University where he studies with Charles Vernon, Michael Mulcahy, and Peter Ellefson. Our Third Prize winner, receiving $1,500, was bass trombonist Graham Gibson, a student at the University of Texas, Austin studying with Nathaniel Brickens. The two Finalist Prizes of $500 went to tenor trombonist Patrick Pfister, a graduate student at Indiana University studying with Carl Lenthe; and tenor trombonist Douglas Rosenthal, presently playing with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The level of playing was extremely high at this year’s final round, with the level of musicianship matching the technical level in every way. This was a tremendous achievement on everyone’s part and made judging the competition a very enjoyable listening experience. It should be noted that the difference between the top prize winners and the finalist prize winners was quite minimal, due to a very strong and extremely well-played final round. This also resulted in a longer than usual period of debate following the last player as the judges tried to come to a consensus. In the end, it was determined that both Christopher Davis and Brian Hecht’s performances were too close to separate, warranting the split of the combined prize money for first and second prizes between the two. Congratulations to all our finalists! The CD round back in February was very fine as well. We received many recordings from the US and abroad and found the level to be consistently high across the board. All who sent in recordings are to be commended and encouraged to participate again in the 2011 Competition, should their age and professional status allow them to do so. Judging this year’s competition were Douglas Wright, Kari Sundström, and David Herring.