Russell Scarbrough
Director, Roberts Jazz Ensemble
Jazz Studies
E-mail: scarbrough_russell@roberts.edu
Education:
D.M.A. in Jazz Composition
Eastman School of Music
M.M. in Jazz Composition
Eastman School of Music
B.S. in Music (jazz composition)
Towson State University
Teaching Responsibilities:
Director, Roberts Jazz Ensemble
Jazz Improvisation
Jazz Composition
Russell Scarbrough is a composer and trombonist living in Rochester, New York. His music has been performed by university jazz ensembles, the Bemus Pops Orchestra, and the US Army Blues in Washington, DC. His principal teachers have been Hank Levy and Bill Dobbins in composition, and John Gifford, John Melick, Wayne Wells, Harry Watters, and Mark Kellogg in trombone.
Scarbrough received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. He received his Master of Music degree there in May 2004. He currently plays lead trombone in the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, and directs his own 18-piece big band, featuring his own new jazz ensemble compositions and those commissioned from young composers in the Rochester area.
Scarbrough was Assistant Principal Trombone in the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra from 1990-1995, performing the Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto for Trombone during the 1992-1993 season. He spent several years in Phoenix, Arizona where he worked with tuba virtuoso Sam Pilafian and was the first director of the Concert Jazz Band II at Arizona State University. He recorded with the Mahronic-Pilafian-Hopkins Jazz Nonet on their 1997 release, "Hidden Agenda", on Summit Records.
While at Eastman his music has been performed by various classical and jazz ensembles and featured in events such as the Rochester International Jazz Festival and the Eastman Jazz Showcase. He has played trombone in the new music ensemble Ossia, the Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman Trombone Choir and Bionic Bones, the New Jazz Ensemble and the Dave Rivello Ensemble. In 2004 he was awarded the Raymond and Maxine Schirmer Prize in Jazz Composition.
In September 2005, Russell Scarbrough became the first recipient of the "Billy Joel Scholarship" award at Eastman. This competitive scholarship, established with a major grant given to the school by pop icon Billy Joel, will be awarded annually to a doctoral student in jazz. In receiving this award, Scarbrough composed a major new work, a 28-minute, three movement Concerto Grosso for Jazz Quintet and Orchestra, premiered by the Eastman Studio Orchestra in March 2006.
To learn more about Russell, visit his web site.
