The Colorado Brass Quintet is the faculty ensemble of the University of Colorado at Boulder Brass Department.  Members of the CBQ have performed with well-known brass ensembles like the Summit Brass, Dallas Brass, Jack Daniels Brass Band, and Chestnut Brass.  The Colorado Brass Quintet presents high level brass chamber music to a wide variety of audiences.  They have presented programs at the Colorado Music Educator's Conference and various Colorado high schools.  The Colorado Brass Quintet will be touring the Texas in March, and are planning an East Coast tour for next October.  The CBQ has made a priority of performing new American music.  They are working closely with several prominent American composers, including Daniel Kellogg and Eric Ewazen. 

Terry Sawchuk

Terry Sawchuk is Associate Professor of Trumpet at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As an orchestral musician, Terry has served as Acting Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Colorado Symphony, Principal Trumpet with the Central City Opera Orchestra, the American Chamber Ensemble, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Ballet Orchestra, and has performed and recorded with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.  As a chamber musician, he was a member of the nationally renowned Dallas Brass, and he recorded with the ensemble on Dallas Brass II.  As a soloist, Terry has performed at several International Trumpet Guild Conferences, the National Trumpet Competition, and at universities, colleges and high schools throughout the United States. In 2000, he performed as soloist with the Ukrainian National Orchestra in Kyiv, Ukraine. Terry has toured with the national Broadway productions of Carousel and Miss Saigon. He has performed with more than fifty jazz and commercial artists in Detroit, Chicago Kansas City and Denver.
 
Presently Mr. Sawchuk is First Trumpet for the Buell Theater in Denver, a member of the Boulder Brass, first trumpet with the Colorado Brass Quintet, and first call extra trumpet with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.  
 
Mr. Sawchuk has performed master classes and clinics throughout the United States, and served as an adjudicator for many competitions with the International Trumpet Guild and the National Trumpet Competition. He has served as a member of the ITG Board of Directors.

Many students of Professor Sawchuk are professional musicians in orchestras, touring bands, and shows across the United States. Several students are teaching trumpet at universities in the U.S. and in Canada, and many other trumpet students are teaching in public school programs across the country.
 
Mr. Sawchuk has taught at Northern Illinois University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and at the University of Kansas. He received his music degrees from the University of Michigan.

Dawn Kramer

Dawn Kramer is a freelance trumpet player in the Denver area.  She is currently a member of the Boulder Brass, the Darren Kramer Organization, and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.  She is second trumpet at the Buell Theatre.  She has subbed with the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Denver Brass, and many regional orchestras and chamber ensembles.
  
As a Colorado native, Ms. Kramer attended the University of Colorado.  She has toured as lead trumpet aboard several cruise lines, a Miami-based salsa band, as well as the internationally acclaimed rock band, Matchbox Twenty.  These travels took her across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Mexico.  She has appeared on the Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, the Rosie O'Donnell show, and VH1 Storytellers.
  
She has recently performed at the International Trumpet Guild, the International Association of Jazz Educators, and the Colorado Music Educators Association conventions.
  
Ms. Kramer teaches privately and is a staff member of both the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts and the Colorado Honor Band Association.

Michael Thornton

Michael Thornton joined the Colorado Symphony as Principal Horn in September 1997.  He has appeared with the orchestra as a soloist on numerous occasions.   Prior to joining the Colorado Symphony, Michael left his studies at The Juilliard School for the Principal Horn position with the Honolulu Symphony.  Mr. Thornton has also played guest Principal Horn for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and the Chatauqua Institute Festival Orchestra in Chatauqua, NY.  He has performed many subscriptions and summer seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including several Carnegie Hall performances.  In June 2005, Michael toured Asia and recorded several Mahler Symphonies with them under Maestro Christoph Eschenbach.  Michael has also performed with the Concerto Soloists Orchestra of Philadelphia, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and the members of the New York Philharmonic Brass Section.  Mr. Thornton has recorded on the Angel/EMI, Koch International, Naxos, Vox Classics, and Albany labels.

Michael is an active chamber musician and soloist.  He is the Solo Horn of the Washington Island Chamber Festival in Door County, Wisconsin.  He is also a member of both the Colorado Symphony Wind Quintet and the University of Colorado faculty chamber winds. Michael has performed and toured with various Colorado chamber groups, including the Colorado Chamber Players and the Denali Ensemble.    He has performed on several occasions with the New York Wind Soloists Quintet, a group comprised of members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.  Michael especially enjoys playing chamber works for flute and horn with his wife, Colorado Symphony Piccolo Julie Duncan Thornton. 

In addition to performing, Mr. Thornton became a member of the horn faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1999.  He has presented masterclasses at conservatories and universities throughout the United States including the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, University of Oklahoma, University of Washington, and numerous music camps and horn workshops.  Michael has been a brass coach for the Denver Young Artist’s Orchestra and a horn instructor for the Colorado Honor Band.  His students have gone on to major conservatories and orchestral positions.    

Michael studied at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Temple University. His main teachers have included Jerome Ashby, Randy Gardner, Julie Landsman and J. C. Leuba.  Mr. Thornton is a Conn/Selmer artist, and performs on an 300 000 series Elkhart Conn 8D.

Bill Stanley

William Stanley is Associate Professor of Trombone at the College of Music. Prior to his appointment at CU in 1985, he performed as a member of the Chestnut Brass Company, a brass quintet which tours internationally and recently won a Grammy award. Dr. Stanley performs performs in a wide variety of musical settings, including as a member of the Boulder Brass, Colorado Ballet Orchestra (principal) and as substitute/extra with the Colorado Symphony. He has presented master classes and clinics for many organizations and schools including the International Trombone Association, Music Teachers National Association, and the Colorado Music Educator’s Association, and has hosted the 1998 International Trombone Festival at CU. He has authored articles and reviews for the International Trombone Association Journal, is co-author of Teaching Brass: A Resource Manual (McGraw-Hill), and was a contributor to Solos for the Student Trombonist: An Annotated Bibliography (BIM 2004). His teaching experience includes positions at Temple, Eastern Illinois, and Millikin Universities.  He holds the BME degree from the University of Kansas and MM and DMA degrees from the University of Illinois

Michael Dunn

Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium Michael Dunn will join the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall of 2005.  Prior to assuming his position at Colorado, Mr. Dunn served on the faculty at the University of Alabama for eleven years and performed as a member of  “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band in Washington D.C. from 1994-1999.  Mr. Dunn holds degrees from Tennessee Technological University (B.S.) and Arizona State University (M.M.) where his primary teachers were R. Winston Morris and Daniel Perantoni.  Mike has also held adjunct faculty positions at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Samford University and Shelton State Community College in Alabama.  Mike played for three seasons as principal tubist with the Alabama Symphony and toured nationally with Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Silver Cornet Band. He has performed with such organizations as the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the Arizona Opera Orchestra and the Maryland Symphony as well as the St. Louis Brass Quintet and Dallas Brass. Mike can be heard on several recording labels including Summit Records, Crescendo Records, Mark Records, Intrada and Silver Cornet Productions, Inc. He is very active as a clinician and recitalist and has performed and presented master-classes at conferences and clinics through the international level. Outside his musical responsibilities Mike enjoys adventures with his wife Jennifer and daughter Anna, backpacking, cooking and amateur carpentry.

If you have interest in booking the Colorado Brass Quintet for a performance, masterclass, residency, music educator conference, or school visit, please contact us.