The Eastman Trombone Choir played its first concert in November 1941. Founded by the school’s legendary trombone professor, Emory Remington, the Trombone Choir is the longest continuously serving ensemble in Eastman’s 100-year history. It also holds the distinction of being the first such curricular ensemble at an American school of music or university.

Upon Mr. Remington’s passing in 1971, Donald Knaub took over as Professor of Trombone, conducting the group until John Marcellus came to join the Eastman faculty in 1978. After a distinguished thirty-six-year tenure at the school, Dr. Marcellus retired, turning the group over to its current conductors, Professors. Larry Zalkind and Mark Kellogg.

Originally formed as a vehicle to promote and support pedagogical ideas that were shared in weekly lessons, the ensemble also serves as an important laboratory for current and former students to try their hands at composing and arranging.

The Eastman Trombone Choir has performed at numerous meetings of the International Trombone Festival and the Eastern Trombone Workshop as well as at venues across upstate New York, Canada, Germany and Holland.

Other local concerts and performances have been with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio Society, Hochstein School of Music, and churches throughout the Rochester area. For many years the choir was a feature of the Rochester Bach Festival. The Choir has also recorded for Mark Records, Stolat Records, and for Williams Music.

The sound of the Eastman Trombone Choir has been described as “majestic,” “noble,” “brilliant,” “soothing,” and “exciting.”