Christian Howard

Dr. Christian Howard is a trombonist and educator based in the Twin Cities, active across orchestral, chamber, and solo settings on alto, tenor, bass trombone, and euphonium.

Christian is Visiting Lecturer of Trombone and Euphonium at the University of Minnesota, where he leads the trombone and euphonium studio, and adjunct low brass instructor at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul. His previous students have won positions with United States Navy fleet bands and a United States Army Reserve band. Others have gone on to Eastman, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, DePaul, the Lawrence Conservatory, and the University of Minnesota. More about the studios and how to audition.

Christian holds the second trombone chair with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and plays regularly as a substitute with the Minnesota Orchestra. He has been a finalist in United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” auditions on both tenor and bass trombone. He has also performed with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Andrea Bocelli, and at the Northern Lights Music Festival.

An active chamber musician, Christian is a member of Tamalpais Brass and the Compass Rose Brass Ensemble. With the Mannes Trombone Quartet he toured the United States and appeared as a guest artist at the Texas State Trombone Symposium.

Christian has been a panelist at the American Trombone Workshop and leads the trombone division of the University of Minnesota High School Honor Band. He has served as a clinician for the University of Northwestern high school honor band day and for the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, and has appeared as a soloist with the University of Northwestern Symphonic Band.

For his doctorate Christian transcribed three songs from Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel for trombone, alongside a study of how a singer’s line translates to a brass instrument.

Education

Doctor of Musical Arts, Trombone Performance

University of Minnesota

Master of Music, Trombone Performance

Mannes School of Music, The New School

Graduate Performance Diploma

The Boston Conservatory

Bachelor of Music, Trombone Performance

The Boston Conservatory

Principal teachers: Thomas Ashworth, Weston Sprott, Demian Austin, Lawrence Isaacson, Norman Bolter, Eric Lindblom, John Marcellus, Stephen Lange, and Steven Campbell.