Performer Details
Performer Bio Synopsis
The Curtis Institute of Music celebrated its 99th anniversary on October 1, 2023. On the occasion of the school’s founding in 1924, Mary Louise Curtis Bok issued a clarion statement for readers of Musical America. Addressing America’s musical community in one of its most prominent vehicles, Mrs. Bok called for the training of young artists who “shall have the scope, the vision, the completeness of full musicianship to quicken the musical life of the whole country. It is to the development of such musical leaders that the full resources of The Curtis Institute of Music are pledged.” Ninety-nine years later, Curtis remains inspired by her forethought.
The Curtis Brass and Percussion Ensemble is one of many Curtis groups that performs in Philadelphia and around the world. Current students study with renowned soloists and chamber musicians as well as brass players and percussionists from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago. Curtis brass and percussion alumni hold high-profile positions as members of respected ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and American Brass Quintet.
Curtis Institute of Music
Conductor's Bio
Blair Bollinger is the Bass Trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where his chair is endowed by Dr. Bong and Mi-Wha Lee. He joined the Orchestra in 1986 at the invitation of Music Director Riccardo Muti and enjoys the full orchestra schedule of more than 150 concerts each year along with many recordings and international tours, spanning the tenures of Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
As a soloist, Mr. Bollinger has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony of Taiwan and others. He has performed recitals and given master classes in Brazil, Chile, China, Greece, Holland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland, Taiwan and throughout the United States. As a student, he won the 1986 Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition and remains the only trombonist to win this competition since it began in 1934 as well as the only bass trombone soloist ever with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His trombone is the Bollinger Model bass trombone by the S.E. Shires Company of Holliston, MA; a trombone Mr. Bollinger helped design.
His recordings include a solo disc, "Fancy Free", two discs with his trombone quartet, "Four of a Kind", a Gabrieli disc with the Canadian Brass, and a premiere recording of the Concerto by Jay Krush with theTemple University Wind Ensemble. His arrangements of music for various string and brass ensembles are published by Alphonse Leduc in Paris, Ensemble Publications in New York and Southern Music in Texas.
An active teacher, Mr. Bollinger is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School and Temple University. In addition to teaching lessons, he coaches chamber music and conducts many classes and sectional rehearsals. He has spent recent summers performing and teaching in the National Orchestral Institute, Grand Teton Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Bravo Vail, Classical Tahoe, New York State Summer School for the Arts, Luzerne Music Center and the Bar Harbor Brass Week. He was born in Rochester, Pennsylvania and is a 1986 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Charles Vernon and Glenn Dodson.
Mr. Bollinger has also been involved in administrative work at the Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Institute of Music. At the Orchestra he has negotiated union contracts and chaired the committee that selected Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees at Curtis and has served on many faculty committees.
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