East Studio Building, JS208
Biography
Denson Paul Pollard has been professor of music in trombone at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2017 and bass/tenor trombonist/bass trumpeter with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2007.
Pollard is a past member of the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and University of Northern Iowa. He was bass trombonist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for 2014-15, the Hong Kong Philharmonic 2001-07, and Orchestra Iowa and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra 1997-2001. From 1995 to 1997, he was the bass trombone player with The Music of the Night, a North American touring show featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Weber.
Pollard earned a Master of Musical Arts and a Doctor of Musical Arts in performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. He holds a Bachelor of Science in music education from Jacksonville State University. He has given master classes worldwide, including at every major conservatory in China. His former students hold playing and teaching positions on four continents.
A passionate champion of the bass trombone as a solo instrument, Pollard has performed as a soloist in 26 countries. He has recorded extensively in every musical setting, including movie soundtracks, commercials, chamber music, orchestra, opera, and his three solo albums.
Pollard has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the Met Opera Orchestra, he has participated on multiple Grammy-winning recordings and performed in concert halls worldwide.
He is a Long Island Brass artist.