by Douglas Yeo (April 2, 2024) I’ve been playing the trombone for 60 years. I started on the instrument when I was nine years old, in 1964, and while my end is nearer than my beginning, I never think of myself as “getting older.” Life is a steady rhythm of engaging activities, individual and shared activities, and the blessing of regularly being with family members and friends. The International Trombone Association was founded in 1972 and I joined it in that same year. I was a senior in high school at the time and in those days, I ordered a lot of trombone music from Robert King Music Sales i ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (March 5, 2024) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has recently made two important, happy announcements that I’d like to share with readers of The Last Trombone. I have been serving as trombone professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for the last two years, since August 2022. At that time, the UIUC School of Music was in need of a trombone professor when its previous full time trombone professor abruptly resigned in May 2022. I was happy to accept the offer to take on this work while the School of Music conducted a search for a new full time trombone professor ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (February 23, 2024) In late 2021, Rowman & Littlefield published my book, An Illustrated Dictionary for the Modern Trombone, Tuba, and Euphonium Player. This book is the product of several years of writing and a lifetime of exploration into the world of low brass instruments. Since the book hit the market, it has received generous reviews and I’ve been heartened knowing that so many individuals and libraries have purchased the book. Here’s a sample of recent reviews: To simply list all of the topics in this dictionary is not practical; however, suffice it to say that if a ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (February 12, 2024) Last Friday, I arrived at my office at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at 7:00 am to get ready for a full day of teaching. As is my habit before taking out my trombone and warming up, I opened my laptop, quickly checked my email, and scanned the morning’s news headlines where I read an announcement that conductor Seiji Ozawa had died on Tuesday, February 6, at the age of 88. I burst into tears and cried like a baby. Seiji Ozawa hired me into the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1985. At age 29, I joined the BSO for a career that extended until 2012, 27 ye ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (December 13, 2023) Readers of TheLastTrombone will remember that in May/June 2023, I traveled to Arizona State University to take part in the 50th Anniversary International Tuba Euphonium Conference. The conference, sponsored every other year by the International Tuba Euphonium Association, was hosted by my good friend, Deanna Swoboda, tuba professor at ASU. While there, I gave a presentation about the Native American Sousaphone player John Kuhn and I also played a recital of music that featured that most unusual of musical instruments, the serpent. Finding a practice room at ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (October 23, 2023) Last week was homecoming at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I am currently serving as the School of Music’s trombone professor through the 2023–2024 academic year. Homecoming is an annual tradition that dates back further than anyone can remember, and most colleges and universities hold the same tradition. It’s a time for alumni to come back to campus, there’s usually an important football game on the weekend, a parade, and school colors—orange and blue—are everywhere. Sign promoting University of Illinois homecoming, outside of the University ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (October 15, 2023) I retired from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2012 after nearly 30 years as a member of that remarkable institution. I use the word institution because the BSO was more than an orchestra. Yes, the orchestra itself was the raison d’être for BSO Inc., but there was so much that flowed from the decision by Major Henry Higginson to establish a symphony orchestra in Boston in 1881. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra—which is the BSO minus most of its principal players—Symphony Hall in Boston, the BSO’s annual summer festival at Tanglewood, r ..read more

by Douglas Yeo (October 6, 2023) Readers of The Last Trombone know that I have been serving as the trombone professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) since summer 2022. In May of last year, the University’s former trombone professor abruptly announced he was retiring and I agreed to fill in for a year while the UIUC School of Music conducted a search for a new full-time trombone professor. Unfortunately, that search was not successful, and I have come back for another year (2023–2024) while another search is mounted. That new search has just been announced—the chair of the tr ..read more

by Douglas Yeo Today (September 22, 2023), a podcast interview I gave last week with The Trombone Corner has launched. I’ve done many interviews over the years for print publications and radio shows, and it’s always nice to engage with thoughtful interviewers who ask interesting questions. Recently I was interviewed for something new for me: a podcast. The Trombone Corner is a production of The Brass Ark and Bob Reeves Brass, and hosted by Noah Gladstone and John Snell. Preston Shepard is the program’s audio engineer. The Trombone Corner launched in April 2020 and now has 22 podcast inte ..read more

by Douglas Yeo I’ve been playing the trombone since 1964, when I was in fourth grade. For many years thereafter, trombone was the only wind instrument I played. OK, I played the flutophone for awhile in elementary school (and then during my freshman year in college when my roommate and I would jam regularly, he on piano and me on flutophone—trust me, you can improvise on it). But maybe that doesn’t count. When I got to Wheaton College, I began to branch out more seriously to other instruments. I minored in euphonium briefly when I was a student at Wheaton College from 1974–1976 before switchin ..read more