BRASS FACULTY

Langston J. Fitzgerald III, trumpet
Lisa Bontrager, horn
Mark Lusk , trombone
Velvet Brown, tuba/euphonium

     FACULTY BY AREA
Bands
Brass
Choirs
Composition and Technology
Conducting
Jazz Studies
Keyboard
Music Education
Musicology
Orchestras
Percussion
Strings
Theory
Voice, and Opera
Woodwinds 		    

 

fitzgerald Dr. Langston J. Fitzgerald III, professor of trumpet at Penn State, played trumpet with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 2003. Fitzgerald has played extra with the National Symphony, in Washington, D.C., and has performed as assistant principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. For the past twenty-seven years, he has been principal trumpet and musical contractor of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Orchestra (www.baltimorechoralarts.org). Professor Fitzgerald performed as principal trumpet of the Baltimore Opera Orchestra from 2003 until the company closed its doors in 2009, leaving Baltimore without a grand opera company. Fitzgerald recently performed the Franz Joseph Haydn Trumpet Concerto on the Baltimore Choral Arts Society's TOUR de France in Paris and Southern France (July 2007). Dr. Fitzgerald's appearance in 2005 at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, not only featured him as trumpet soloist and chamber performer, but also as conductor of the trumpet ensemble "en masse" to signal the end of the conference—a tradition that has continued to prevail. Most recently, Professor Fitzgerald performed the world premiere work by Eric Ewazen, "Down a River of Time," at the 35th International Trumpet Guild Conference in Sydney, Australia (July 2010). This world premiere received its U.S. premiere in Fitzgerald's faculty recital in September 2010 at Penn State, with the composer as his guest accompanist. Dr. Fitzgerald also occasionally performs with the Penn State faculty brass quintet, The Pennsylvania BrassWorks (WPSU TV/FM).

In addition, he is first trumpet and founder of both the Giovanni and the Potomac brass quintets. His freelancing in Baltimore and Washington has included performing at three presidential inaugurations and three "Christmas in Washington" nationally televised specials. He helped to contract and played co-principal trumpet at the nationally televised Millennium celebration at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining the Penn State faculty, Fitzgerald taught trumpet at Catholic University (1990-2003). He also taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music from 1990 to 2005 (including three years while he was on the Penn State faculty). He was lecturer at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland. Fitzgerald served as assistant professor of trumpet, coordinator of the brass department, and orchestra conductor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1970 until 1976. He has also taught trumpet at such schools as Morgan State University, the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, University of the District of Columbia, Towson State University, and Western Maryland College.

Professor Fitzgerald has several former students who have won positions in major symphony orchestras, including Tage Larsen, fourth trumpet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Billy Hunter, principal trumpet, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City; Thomas Hooten, principal trumpet, Atlanta Symphony; and Andrew Wilson, solo cornet/trumpet, United States Air Force Band, Washington, D.C. In addition to preparing many of his students for performing careers, Fitzgerald has had numerous students pursue the degrees of Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance.

Dr. Fitzgerald is a graduate of Howard University (B.M.E.) and Catholic University of America (M.M. and D.M.A). He is a member of the International Trumpet Guild, and is a founding and honorary member of the Board of Directors of the International Women's Brass Conference. Fitzgerald is also a member of the American Federation of Musicians in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

TOP

bontragerLisa Ormston Bontrager is director of the Penn State Horn Studio. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and in Europe and Japan. Bontrager is currently active performing, touring and recording with Millennium Brass, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, the Pennsylvania Quintet, and MirrorImage, a horn duo with colleague Michelle Stebleton. As soloist/clinician for Holton horns, Bontrager has been featured at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic, New York Brass Conference, the New England Brass Conference, and a number of international conferences of the International Horn Society. For six years she served as an elected member of the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society.

Distinctive because of her versatility, Bontrager has been recognized as one of the country's leading tenor horn players. She currently tours and records with both the Brass Band of Battle Creek and the New Columbian Brass Band. Performing on historic instruments, she has appeared in lectures and on video with Louis Stout's "The Horn, from the Forest to the Concert Hall." She has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Chamber and Ballet Orchestras, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Aspen Festival and Chamber Orchestras, the Harrisburg Symphony, and the Penn's Woods Festival Orchestra. Presently, she serves as principal horn of the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra
Bontrager holds performance degrees from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Louis Stout. Appointed to the Penn State faculty in 1985, she is currently Distinguished Professor of Music. She teaches horn and directs the eighteen-member Horn Ensemble. Bontrager's first solo recording, Hunter's Moon, was released on the Summit Records label (www.summitrecords.com) in April 2002.

Click here for Lisa Bontrager's home page

For more information on Lisa O. Bontrager's recordings, see Solo Recordings, The Pennsylvania Quintet, and Recordings with Other Ensembles

TOP

luskMark Lancaster Lusk, professor of trombone, joined the Penn State faculty in 1986.  Prior to his appointment, he enjoyed a varied career with such diverse groups as the Woody Herman Thundering Herd, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players. 

He continues to have an active playing career as a soloist, clinician, and freelance musician. As a member of the Woody Herman Alumni Band, he has performed throughout the United States and abroad, including featured performances at jazz festivals in China, England, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, and Sweden.  The two most recent recordings of the Woody Herman Alumni Band, titled "60th Jubilee" and "Live in London," are available on the New York Jam label. 
Professor Lusk has performed on Broadway in many shows, including the most recent production of Little Women.  The original cast album is currently available from Ghostlight Records. His successful career on Broadway has allowed him to play such memorable shows as Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, Victor/Victoria, Miss Saigon, and Beauty and the Beast. 
 
Professor Lusk’s performing and teaching have also taken him to South America. He has toured Chile as an artist/clinician, teaching and performing throughout the country, including a performance of Raymond Premru's "Concerto for Tuba" with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción and Robert Spillman’s “Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra” with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile. Lusk was also invited to Argentina as an artist/clinician. His performance of the Spillman Concerto with the Orquesta Filharmónica de Buenos Aires was the first time a trombonist had been a soloist in the history of the Teatro Colon.
  
Each year Professor Lusk’s tours as a soloist and with various groups take him to numerous universities and schools of music across the United States. He has often performed at the New York Brass Conference, the Eastern Trombone Workshop, and the International Trombone Workshop where he was invited to conduct the William Cramer Memorial Trombone Ensemble of College Professors. 
Lusk is a native of Brandenburg, Kentucky.  He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Eastman School of Music and a performance certificate from Northwestern University.  Lusk is a clinician for the Selmer Instrument Company and is published by Lyceum Press, including the Trombonist's Guide to the Unaccompanied Cello Suites of J. S. Bach.  

Click here for more about Mark Lusk's publications
Click here for more about Mark Lusk's recordings

Click here for more about Mark Lusk and the trombone studio

TOP

brownVelvet Brown enjoys a professional career as an international soloist and chamber ensemble performer, recording artist, conductor, and orchestral player. She has made regular appearances throughout Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Brown has served as principal tubist with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra and as substitute or additional tubist with the Detroit Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, San Francisco Women's Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. She has garnered high praise as a member of the Monarch Brass Quintet and Brass Ensemble, the Junction Tuba Quartet, and the Garda Duo.

Brown was appointed professor of tuba and euphonium at Penn State in fall 2003. Previously, she taught at Bowling Green State University and Ball State University, and served as an associate director of University Bands at Boston University. She has had many successful students who have been prize winners at various regional, national, and international competitions. Currently, she serves as secretary of the executive committee for the International Tuba and Euphonium Association (ITEA). She is also a board member of the International Women's Brass Conference. Brown is noted for receiving the 1999–2000 William Fulbright Fellowship Vinciguerra Award.

She has released two solo CDs: Velvet and Music for Velvet (Crystal Records). In addition, she has recorded music by the award-winning composer Neal Corwell for the Nicolai Music Label. Her interpretation of John Williams’ Tuba Concerto can be heard on the Bowling Green Philharmonia's Composer's Voice, Volume IV recording, which is forthcoming. 

Click here for more information on Velvet Brown's recordings

TOP