Tom Curry & Mark Hetzler with the UW Low Brass Ensemble

“The Meditation Series” is a concert which will trade atmosphere for applause, with listeners invited to “meditate, read, or even sleep.” Featuring the UW Low Brass Ensemble joined by co-directors Tom Curry, tuba, and Mark Hetzler, trombone, the program includes music by Kojiro Umezaki, James Fulkerson, and new works by Curry and Hetzler.

Mead Witter School of Music concert. Free.

media release:

Tom Curry, tuba

Mark Hetzler, trombone

Low Brass Ensemble

The Meditation Series

Is it a concert? A space? A sound?

The Meditation Series is less a performance than an environment—an atmosphere where listeners can slow down, regather, and reset. We invite you to listen, or meditate, or read, or even sleep. You can breathe with the sound, and just be.

Professors Tom Curry and Mark Hetzler will transform Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall into a refuge of tranquility and deep listening. The program includes music by Kojiro Umezaki and James Fulkerson, as well as premieres by Curry and Hetzler.

Program

For Zero       Kojiro Umezaki

Wood/Stone       James Fulkerson

Present       Mark Hetzler

There is no time without change      Tom Curry

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Tom Curry has served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music since 2014. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree as well as a Master of Music degree in tuba performance from Northwestern University. He also holds degrees in tuba performance and communication arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Curry is currently the tubist in the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, a faculty ensemble-in-residence at the Mead Witter School of Music, and has performed with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic and many other orchestras. Since 2022, he has performed with the Meridian Arts Ensemble, a brass ensemble specializing in new music. He is a Miraphone performing artist.

As a soloist and composer, Curry’s interests include the application of electronics and fixed media, immersive sonic environments, protracted musical processes, and improvisation. He has commissioned, premiered, and composed works for tuba in a wide variety of contexts and has been invited to perform at numerous conferences, festivals and universities, including recent appearances at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Conference, the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, the Jihlava Tuba Workshop (Czech Republic), the Midwest Tuba Trombone and Euphonium Conference, the New Music Gathering, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, Indiana University and many others.

Curry has released several solo and chamber recordings in recent years, including: Credo (2024), a recording with the Meridian Arts Ensemble; Two Impromptus (2024), a recording of improvised electroacoustic music with Madison-based trio Wonderporium; water_wind (2021), a solo EP featuring the premiere recording of Bryn Davis’ ☞□❒ □❍ ◆❒❒⍓ for microtonal tuba septet; Don’t Look Down (2020), a collaboration with trombonist Mark Hetzler and percussionist Anthony Di Sanza; s.i.p_1 (2020), an improvised electroacoustic collaboration with euphoniumist Brett Keating; and Alight (2018), his first solo recording comprised of modern works for tuba, including Sofia Gubaidulina’s Lamento, Galina Ustvolskaya’s Composition No. 1 “Dona Nobis Pacem,” and Giacinto Scelsi’s Maknongan.

In his position at the Mead Witter School of Music, Curry teaches applied tuba and euphonium, coaches brass chamber ensembles and co-conducts the University of Wisconsin Low Brass Ensemble. He regularly presents master classes and clinics throughout the country and teaches tuba and euphonium at the University of Wisconsin Summer Music Clinic.

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Born in Sarasota, Florida in 1968, Mark Hetzler began playing his father’s trombone at the age of twelve. He went on to receive a B.M. from Boston University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music. Mark was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and completed a three-year fellowship with the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

As a member of the Empire Brass Quintet from 1996-2012, Mark performed in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, Bermuda, St. Bartholomew and across the United States. He appeared with the group on live television and radio broadcasts in Asia and the United States, as well as Empire Brass recordings on the Telarc label.

Mark has released twelve solo recordings on the Summit Records label with programming that features music in a wide variety of genres. In addition to recording and performing, Mark is active as a composer, orchestrator and arranger, fusing classical styles with many non-classical influences. He has composed a trombone concerto, Three Views of Infinity, as well as numerous works in solo, chamber and large ensemble settings, including wind ensemble, orchestra, big band, brass quintet and jazz/rock combos.

In addition to his solo recordings, he has recently released three ensemble recordings. Don’t Look Down (2020), which he co-produced with UW-Madison colleagues Tom Curry and Anthony Di Sanza, features their collaborative concert-length original composition Don’t Look Down, exploring the impact of social media and technology on society. Mark can also be heard performing his own music on the recordings of the adventurous new music group Mr. Chair. This versatile quartet released their debut recording Nebulebula in 2019, and followed it up with their second album Better Days in 2022.

Former Principal Trombone of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Mark has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops and the Florida Orchestra. He joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, and is currently the Professor of Trombone at UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. As a faculty member in the School of Music, he teaches the Trombone Studio, coaches Chamber Music, teaches Brass Fundamentals courses to Music Education students, co-directs the Low Brass Ensemble and performs as a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (faculty ensemble-in-residence). Mark is a Getzen Performing Artist who plays the 4147-IB Custom Reserve tenor trombone. Learn more about Mark at his website: www.markhetzler.com