Dennis
Horton
Dennis
Horton,
professor of trumpet, has been a member of the
Central Michigan University School of Music faculty since 1968,
teaching applied trumpet, brass techniques and theory related
subjects, and coaching brass chamber ensembles and conducting the
CMU Brass Band. His former students have distinguished themselves
in obtaining performing and teaching positions in numerous
orchestras and universities in the United States: New England, the
Midwest, the west coast, and Florida. Several of his students have
also received many teaching awards in Michigan including being
nominated for “Teacher of the Year”. A sabbatical leave during the
1992-93 year resulted in several innovations in the School of Music,
most notably in the use of computers in music notation and in
teaching Orchestration.
Dr. Horton has twice been nominated for “Outstanding Faculty Award”
at CMU. Dr. Horton, during his tenure at CMU, has served as
principal trumpet of several orchestras in the state (including the
Midland Symphony Orchestra 1977-1991) and, from 1983-2002, was a
member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra trumpet section. His
professional performing activities have taken him to many of the
important concert venues in America including Carnegie Hall and
Lincoln Center (New York), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.),
Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, and Hill
Auditorium in Ann Arbor. While a member of the GRSO, he participated
in several recordings during the 1990's: Symphonies #2 and #3 of
David Ott, Symphonies #1 and #2 of Camille Saint-Saens, Three
Concertos (Clarinet, Violin, Trombone) by Donald Erb and two “Piano
Pops” (with Rich Ridenour), “Christmas Pops”, and "American
Landscapes" (music celebrating the 100th birth date of Aaron
Copland). Dr. Horton, as a member of several orchestras, has
participated in several premier performances by many composers
including William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, Lukas Foss, Donald Erb,
and David Ott, to mention a few. He has also played under many
distinguished conductor/performers (Eugene Ormandy, Morton Gould,
Catherine Comet, Barry Tuckwell, Alexander Schneider, and David
Lockington) and performed several concerts with the New York Brass
Quintet, the Empire Brass, and the Canadian Brass. He also was
principal trumpet in a PBS National Broadcast of a revival of Aaron
Copland’s opera: “The Tender Land” with the composer as conductor.
At CMU, Dr. Horton’s CMU Alumni Trumpet Ensemble performed and
recorded his “Suite for Six Trumpets”, which is on the inaugural
School of Music CD (1998). Dr. Horton has numerous published
compositions and arrangements. To date, he has eighteen works for
trumpet ensemble. The “Suite for Six Trumpets” (1989) has been
featured throughout the world: at the International Trumpet Guild
Conferences (1990, 1998, 1999, and 2001), at the Vienna Hochschule
fur Musik, the Graz Festival (Austria) and, in December, 1999 on
Austria 01 Radio on a live broadcast which also included several of
Dr. Horton’s arrangements of Christmas Carols for trumpet ensemble.
In the Spring of 1999, he was commissioned by the University of
Tennessee to write a work (“Scottish Fantasy”) for large trumpet
ensemble to be premiered in Knoxville, TN in March and ultimately to
be performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference at the
University of Virginia in Richmond in May, 1999, and again performed
at the ITG Conferences: SUNY-Purchase, May 2000 and the University
of Evansville, May 2001. Dr. Horton has also had numerous brass
choir and brass band works performed throughout the U.S. and the
world. His composition Prelude “Laudes Domine” (“When morning gilds
the skies”) was a prizewinner in the 1994 Millar Brass Ensemble
Composition Contest (a brass band version of the work was featured
on the CMU Brass Band concert in April, 2001). The highly acclaimed
trumpet ensemble “Merkuns”, comprised of the leading trumpeters of
Tokyo, released a CD in February, 2003 that featured two of Dr.
Horton’s compositions: “Suite for Six trumpets” and “Scottish
Fantasy” on the Meister Music label. In the recent past, Dr. Horton
has been directly involved in the preparation and publication of
several works of Professor Clifford P. Lillya (Earl V. Moore
Professor Emeritus - The University of Michigan) including:
“Trumpet Technic”, (an important pedagogical book for the university
studio teacher), band arrangements of several solo works: Barat -
Andante and Scherzo”, Vidal - “Concertino”, and Mendelssohn –
“Nocturne from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’.” Dr. Horton holds the
bachelor of music, master of music, and doctor of musical
arts in performance degrees from The University of Michigan where
he studied with Clifford P. Lillya. He is a founding member of the
International Trumpet Guild, and holds honorary memberships in the
Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association and Phi Mu Alpha
Sinfonia.
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