2024 William Cramer Trombone Choir
The Cramer Choir, a longstanding ITF tradition, was founded to celebrate William Cramer, long time professor at Florida State University, and a founding member of the ITA, the parent organization of the ITF. In addition to many years conducting and touring with the FSU Trombone Choir (known as the Seminole Sackbut Society), Cramer was active as a performer throughout his career, and both commissioned and premiered many new works for trombone.
The Cramer Choir features outstanding college and university professors from across the US.
2024 Cramer Trombone Choir, Simon Wills Director
Tenor Trombone
Nathanial Brickens - University of Texas, Austin
Lucas Borges - Ohio University
Justin Croushore - Morehead State University
Tim Dueppen - Lamar University
Bruce Faske - Arkansas Stet University
Michelle Flowers - Southeastern Oklahoma State
David Jackson - University of Michigan
Denis Jiron - Western University, Ontario Canada
Lance Laster - San Jacinto College
Brittany Latsch - Indiana University
Sarah Miller - Washington State Univ
Dunwoody Mirvil - Stetson University
Jacob Muzquiz - University of Texas, Arlington
Andrea Neumann - Hartt School of Music
Donny Pinson – Del Mar College
Anderson Rodrigues da Silva - Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes
Elisabeth Shafer – Ohio State University
Greg Spiridopoulos - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Bass Trombone
Jason Hausback - Missouri State University
Lucas Kaspar - Cameron University
Heather Mensch - Tyler Junior College
Colby Norton - Berea College
Christopher Sharpe - Murray State University
Shelly Suminski - San Bernardino Valley College
Catch the Cramer Choir in concert at 1:30pm on Saturday, in Van Cliburn Hall!
Simon Wills began his career in the orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. After some years with Welsh National Opera, he joined the London Symphony Orchestra and was simultaneously principal trombone of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, a post he held for fourteen years. During his time with COE, the orchestra recorded its celebrated Beethoven and Schumann cycles with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and gave the first performance in modern times of Rossini's il Viaggio a Reims under Claudio Abbado. Simon has worked with all the orchestras in the UK, particularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the BBC, and has been a guest principal with the Teatro all Scala, Milan, Berliner Staatsoper unter den Linden, Moscow Soloists, Orquestra de Cadaques, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Symphony Orchestra of India and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.
He was for many years a well-known player on the contemporary scene, performing with London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Lontano, Endymion, Composers Ensemble and Critical Band, with whom he made several recordings of the works of Xenakis, supervised by the composer. He played in the Fires of London in its latter years; Peter Maxwell Davies wrote his solo trombone piece Judas Mercator for him. He was engaged by the Biennale di Venezia for the creation and first performances of Luigi Nono's Prometeo and has taken part in many other premieres, including Elliott Carter's Dialogues, Nicholas Maw's Sophie's Choice, The House of Crossed Desires by John Woolrich and James Wood's Proms commission Two Men Meet, Each Presuming The Other To Be From A Distant Planet.
Simon's work in historical performance has included the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Orchest van de Achttiende Eeuw, Gabrieli Consort and Freiburger Barockorchester, with whom he has appeared as soloist, recording the Michael Haydn Adagio and Allegro for horn, alto trombone and orchestra for SWR.