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.
Having grown up in southern Oregon, Ellefson 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, Oregon, and St Louis 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. He 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 the 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 Trombones de Costa Rica.
Ellefson has held faculty positions at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, University of Costa Rica, and Music Academy of the West. He has been a faculty member of the Alessi Seminar, Cleveland Trombone Seminar, and DC Trombone Workshop.
In addition to dozens of orchestral, chamber, soundtrack recordings, his solo CD releases are Pura Vida (2010), À la manière de Defaye (2017), and 3 (2019). He is currently recording a new release, 4.
Ellefson was involved in the design process of the Getzen 4047-DS tenor trombone and now performs on the Getzen 4047-ET.