East Studio Building, JS432
Education
- M.M., Master of Music, Northwestern University, 1985
- B.A., Bachelor of Arts, Linfield College, 1984
Biography
Peter Ellefson is professor of music in trombone at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was previously chair of the Brass Department.
From southern Oregon, he has performed, recorded, and toured internationally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has performed with the Boston, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, National, and Oregon symphony orchestras as well as The Cleveland Orchestra. A former member of the Seattle Symphony, performing on trombone, tenor tuba, and bass trumpet, he also served as principal trombone for many cycles of Seattle Opera productions of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Ellefson is a frequent recitalist, soloist and clinician in the U.S. and abroad. Composers Anthony Barfield, James Stephenson, and Kevin Walczyk have written concertos for him. Chamber music credits include Canadian Brass, Chicago Chamber Musicians, CSO Brass, Chicago Trombone Consort, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, New York Philharmonic Brass Quintet, Proteus 7, Washington Symphonic Brass, and the Trombones de Costa Rica.
He has held faculty positions at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, University of Costa Rica, The Music Academy of the West, and the Alessi Seminar. He is on the current faculty of the DC Trombone Workshop.
In addition to dozens of orchestral, chamber, and soundtrack recordings, Ellefson’s solo CD releases are Pura Vida (2010), À la manière de Defaye (2017), 3 (2019), and he is currently recording 4.
He was involved in the design of the Getzen 4047-DS tenor trombone and performs on the Getzen 4047-ET model with a Griego 5E mouthpiece.