TTU Ensembles/Groups
Large Ensemble ProgramsConcert Band
Symphony Band
Wind Ensemble
Tech Chorale
Concert Choir
Opera Workshop
Mastersingers
Private Vocal Instruction
ABUSUA West African Drumming Ensemble
The Brass Arts Quintet
TTU Trombone Studio
TTU Trumpet Ensemble
TTU Tuba Ensemble
TTU Jazz Ensemble
Large Ensemble Programs
The Golden Eagle Marching Band, the Pride of Tennessee Tech, has nearly a century of tradition and is the musical ambassador of Tennessee Tech University. 160 members, from virtually every major on campus, the marching band performs for all home football games, the annual homecoming parade, and for many functions on campus and in the community.
The Golden Eagle Marching Band performs a varied repertoire including popular, jazz, swing, showtunes, R&B, standards, and popular classics. Custom arrangements are common, and the dynamic visual program enhances a traditionally exciting, exceptionally executed musical program.
While the band regularly changes its halftime shows, the schedule of rehearsals for the Golden Eagle Marching Band is modest and limited to a two-hour period, three days per week on game weeks and two days per week when the football team is out of town. The band, at this time, does not travel to "away" games. No extra rehearsals are scheduled, and no extra fees are charged.
All Tennessee Tech students who have had experience as an instrumentalist, color guard member, twirler, or dancer are encouraged to participate in this wonderful experience. The Golden Eagle Marching Band receives "in lieu of" credit for all students' required physical education credits, and scholarships are available to qualified individuals.
The Concert Band is an ensemble which studies exceptional band literature and promotes the finest in wind and percussion performance. Comprised of enthusiastic majors and non-majors who enjoy performing, the Concert Band provides a valuable experience for music students to become familiar with the band's significant repertoire and an outlet for students of other majors to be a part of an excellenct ensemble.
The Concert Band performs two programs per year during the Spring semester and frequently has the opportunity to serve as a reading ensemble for student compositions and arrangements. While a membership audition is not required, everyone is asked to perform a private audition for chair placement.
Concert Band
The Concert Band is an ensemble that studies exceptional band literature and promotes the finest in wind and percussion performance. Comprised of enthusiastic majors and non-majors who enjoy performing, the Concert Band provides a valuable experience for music students to become familiar with the band's significant repertoire, and an provides outlet for students of other majors to be a part of an excellent ensemble.
The Concert Band performs two programs yearly during the spring semester and frequently has the opportunity to serve as a reading ensemble for student compositions and arrangements. While a membership audition is not required, everyone is asked to perform a private audition for chair placement.
Symphony Band
The Symphony Band is the principal concert ensemble of the TTU Bands and has earned its reputation as one of the finest symphonic organizations in the country. It programs and studies the finest in wind band repertoire. The Tennessee Tech Symphony Band has performed for State, regional, and national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference and the College Band Directors National Association and is regularly asked to record new music for publishers of band music. The Symphony Band's performances have been featured on National Public Radio and Public Television, and the band regularly seeks and is requested to premiere new literature.
Through its activities as a laboratory, the Symphony Band provides service to the Tennessee Conductors' Symposium, a weekend workshop for secondary school teachers and military band commander/conductors. It is a focal point for the annual Festival of Winds and Percussion, an honor band weekend, which creates an atmosphere of learning and sharing between high school and college students and the conductors from the 6-state region. The Festival of Winds and Percussion brings the nations's finest conductors and composers to the TTU campus. Some of the notable guests which have worked with the Tech Symphony Band are Morton Gould, Aaron Copland, Vincent Persichetti, Robert Jager, Vaclav Nelhybel, Claude T. Smith, Fisher Tull, John Paynter, Karel Husa, Mark Camphouse, Frank Erickson, Ken Bloomquist, Jared Spears, Jerry Junkin, Frank Wickes, James Croft, Ray Cramer, James Keene, Elliot Del Borgo, Myron Welch, Tom Lee, John Boyd, and David Waybright.
Graduates of the TTU Symphony Band have held positions in each of the premiere military bands in Washington D.C., have pursued further graduate study at other universities, are serving as noted conductors and teachers in public and private schools and colleges, and are exceptional music professionals and respected colleagues throughout the world.
Wind Ensemble
The Wind Ensemble is a highly select group of instrumentalists selected by private audition. Its composition, consistent with the history of chamber winds and the wind ensemble concept, is flexible and instrumentation is determined by the demands of the musical works it is performing. This ensemble performs a variety of works ranging from the 16th century brass music of Gabrielli, the harmonie of Mozart, to the exploratory compositions of the modern era. The Wind Ensemble exists as the primary concert ensemble in the Fall semester. During the Spring semester, the Wind Ensemble is incorporated as a part of the Symphony Band.
The Wind Ensemble concept is one which capitalizes on the strength of individual players, usually one on a part, and a changing instrumentation. The Tennessee Tech Wind Ensemble utilizes player rotation on many parts providing students with a rich ensemble experience.
Tech Chorale
The Tennessee Tech University Chorale is the premiere choral ensemble on campus. This ensemble performs choral literature of all musical styles and represents the University on tours of Tennessee and surrounding states. In the fall of 2004 the ensemble joined choirs from around the United States in a performance of the Mozart Coronation Mass in Carnegie Hall in New York, NY. Most recently the Chorale was invited to perform at the Tennessee Music Educators Association conference held in Nashville, TN. The choir has toured Germany, Mexico, Austria, England, Scotland and Wales and has been invited to perform for the Music Educators National Conference, and the Southern Division of the American Choral Directors Association. In addition to the chorale’s regular concert schedule, the ensemble annually performs with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra. Membership in this ensemble is by audition and is open to all students of the university.
Concert Choir
The Concert Choir is a non-auditioned mixed choral ensemble with a membership that represents a diversity of disciplines on the Tech campus. This ensemble performs choral literature from a variety of style periods and cultures and participates in three concerts a year. Membership in this choir is open to all students of the university and does not require an audition.
Opera Workshop
Students enrolled in Opera Workshop present productions each year, as well as an outreach program for elementary schools in the Putnam County area. Recent performances include The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti, The Goose Girl by Thomas Pasatieri, La Centerentola by Rossini, as well as scenes from Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and other longer works. Opera Workshop is open, by audition, to all university students.
Mastersingers
The Mastersingers is a community choral ensemble composed of singers from Cookeville and the surrounding Upper Cumberland region along with TTU students. In addition to frequent area concerts, the Mastersingers appear with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra. Over the years Mastersingers repertoire has included such works as Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ A German Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s Magnificat, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and Mozart’s Requiem. The choir will participate in its first European tour in the summer of 2006 to Paris and Normandy. Membership is open to experienced singers each fall. Rehearsals are Monday evenings from 7:00-9:00 in the Bryan Fine Arts Rehearsal Hall, Room 101.
Private Vocal Instruction
Private vocal lessons, for academic credit, are available to all students (with instructor permission) who wish to improve their vocal skills. Private lessons, as well as class voice instruction, are taught by highly-qualified artists/teachers who perform regularly on campus and throughout the region as soloists in oratorio and operatic roles.
ABUSUA West African Drumming Ensemble
What is Abusua?
Abusua is a West African drumming and dance ensemble. We perform traditional songs and dances from Ghana, West Africa.
What does "Abusua" mean?
"Abusua" (ah-BOO-soo-ah) means "family" in Twi, a variety of the Akan language spoken in Ghana. This alludes to an important quality of the Ghanaian music we perform: the ensemble of instruments can be thought of as a family, in which you have many different interdependent voices coming together as one. This is also a suitable name because we are such a tight-knit group of people.
How do you learn your songs?
Our director was the late Joseph Rasmussen, former professor of percussion here at Tennessee Tech. He taught all of the West African drum and dance classes. The club was formed in the Spring of 1991 after Professor Rasmussen returned from a leave-of-absence, during which he studied West African Music with Abraham Adzenyah at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and with the late Godwin Agbeli in Ghana, West Africa. The classes are now taught by two students of his, Meredith McMahan and Cale Koester. Approximately every two years we travel to Ghana to learn new songs and dances and bring back new instruments and costumes.
Where do you perform?
We have a final performance once every semester in the Wattenbarger Auditorium of the Bryan Fine Arts building at Tennessee Tech. We also perform extensively in schools around the area, and have performed at events such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and the Music Educator's National Convention.
The Brass Arts Quintet
The Brass Arts Quintet presents an entertaining and informative program of works from all eras of music. Our extensive repertoire includes festive dances of the Renaissance, intricate fugues of the Baroque, operatic selections from the Classical period, lyric works of the Romantic era, brass band music of the 19th-century, and popular music of the last 150 years ranging from parlor songs to selections from musical theater, swing, jazz, and rock. The ensemble has premiered numerous original works by American composers Robert Jager, Walter Ross, Earl George, Aldo Rafael Forte, and others. The members of the quintet are also adept at arranging and composing and are continually adding new works to their repertoire, all designed to showcase the unique talents of this outstanding group of performers.
Founded in 1963, the quintet has entertained audiences throughout the eastern United States, appeared at major music conferences, and has toured for the Tennessee Arts Commission, bringing the joy of music to thousands of listeners of all ages through both community and school performances. The quintet has appeared on public television stations across the country in programs including two Christmas specials and Patriotic Brass, celebrating the music of America. The group has also recorded two compact discs, Premiere Recordings of Music for Professional and Student Brass Quintets and The Spirit of America.
Our programs offer something for every audience and we look forward to providing you with an entertaining and informative concert event. For more information on the Brass Arts Quintet, contact Joshua Hauser at (931) 372-6086 or via e-mail at jhauser@tntech.edu.
TTU Trombone Studio
The TTU trombone studio in the Department of Music and Art presents a series of concerts each Fall and Spring semester, each concert highlighting the trombone in a variety of musical settings. These performances, include recitals for trombone chamber ensembles (duets, trios, quartets, quintets), individual recitals, a studio recital, student ensembles in which the trombone plays an integral role (i.e. brass quintet or other chamber ensemble), and concludes with a concert by the Tennessee Tech Trombone Choir.
TTU Trumpet Ensemble
Trumpet study at Tennessee Tech University incorporates activities designed to provide a wide range of solo and ensemble experiences. Tech trumpeters annually present the Fall Trumpet Festival, a concert series by students and faculty, and Pops Night for Trumpet featuring "lighter" solo literature ranging from Arban to Mendez. The TTU Trumpet Ensemble has premiered more than 60 works and specializes in original and transcribed music for trumpet ensembles of more than 5 parts ranging from orchestral works to pop arrangements. TTU founded the Tennessee Trumpet Competition and Trumpet Seminar with guest artists and prominent Tennessee trumpet professionals serving as judges in awarding cash prizes to high school and college solo and ensemble performers. back new instruments and costumes.
TTU Tuba Ensemble
The Tennessee Technological University Tuba Ensemble has been selected by The Tennessee Board of Regents to receive the prestigious TBR Academic Excellence and Quality Award. The TTTE is the first music program in the state of Tennessee to receive this award. Additionally, the ensemble has been notified that its latest CD recording release, CARNEGIE VI, a documentation of the group's sixth appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City, on the Mark Records label was submitted and accepted by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) to be included on its “Grammy Entry List.”
The internationally acclaimed Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble (TTTE) from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville , Tennessee , is considered the “pioneer” ensemble of its kind. The TTTE is continually received with favor by audiences from Carnegie Hall in New York to Jackson Square in New Orleans . The group has been described as one that is “not a novelty, but an ensemble with a unique sound.” The TTTE has received the highest accolades from the professional world of tubists and euphoniumists, music educators, and professional reviewers. Following the example of the TTTE, similar groups have formed all over the world. Music generated by and for the Tech ensemble has been performed in Japan , Australia , Canada , all over Western Europe, and throughout the United States .
Organized in 1967 by R. Winston Morris, the TTTE was the birth of a new concept in music for multiple tubas. Previous to this, there had been a very limited amount of activity involving chamber music for tubas. The Tech ensemble introduced the idea of the large tuba/euphonium choir with parts being frequently doubled. Needless to say, there was a total lack of literature for such an ensemble; therefore, the Tech group had to commence an extensive “search” for music. That “search” has led to the composition and arrangement of over one thousand works specifically done for the Tech ensemble by outstanding composers from the United States and abroad.
The TTTE first appeared in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1976 and continues, with an unprecedented seventh appearance in January 2007, to be the only tuba ensemble to ever present full concerts on that world-famous stage.
Performances by the TTTE have been presented from New York to Chicago , from Florida to Texas , and almost everywhere in between. Appearances have been made at regional and national Music Educators National Conference (MENC) workshops; regional, national, and international Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association (T.U.B.A.) workshops; the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Preservation Hall, and Mardi Gras Parades; the 1984 International Brass Congress; Disney World; Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.; the Spoleto Festival; TV work for PM Magazine and annual PBS productions; and the world's fairs in Knoxville, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The TTTE was the first ensemble of its kind to release a commercially produced record album. Since that first recording in 1975, twenty TTTE recordings have been produced.
Performances, commissioning programs, participation in regional, national, and international workshops, and conferences and recordings by the TTTE have expanded opportunities for tubists and euphoniumists and provided the music world with a new and exciting sound.
The Troubadours Jazz Ensemble
The Troubadours are part of a jazz ensembles program at Tennessee Tech that features two big bands as well as classes in jazz improvisation.
The ensemble was formed in 1948 by then Chairman of Music, Col. Maurice Haste. Tennessee Tech University was one of the first colleges in the South to have a jazz ensemble. Starting in the 1950s, the Troubadours played regularly at dances both on and off campus.
Many alumni of the Troubadours are now prominent educators and performers. The Boots Randolph Band, Disneyland, The Jack Daniel's Silver Cornet Band, and Opryland USA are just a few examples of organizations whose musical performers are former members of the Troubadours.
Today, the Troubadours continue to perform throughout the region. In addition, the band hosts an annual jazz festival featuring some of the finest names in jazz. Past guests have included Allen Vizzutti, Louie Bellson, Dan Hearle, Buddy Baker, Roger Pemberton, Bob Mintzer, Dominic Spera, David Baker, Jeff Jaskell, Tom Ervin, Jerry Tachoir, Jamey Aebersold, Frank Mantooth, Jimmy Rupp, Tom Wolfe and others. The Troubadours have appeared on "CBS Sunday Morning" with Charles Kuralt, as part of a story on jazz great Louie Bellson.
