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25th Annual
25th Annual
 
2010 Festival Guest Artist
 


Roger L. Behrend, is an internationally-recognized euphonium soloist, recitalist, teacher, and clinician.

A Fairfax, Virginia native, he graduated from Robinson High School before attending Michigan State University, where he studied with Dr. Leonard Falcone. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from Michigan State University and earned a Master’s Degree in Euphonium Performance from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

Mr. Behrend recently retired as the euphonium soloist and principal euphonium with the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC, after thirty years of total military band service. While in the Navy Band, he appeared as a featured soloist throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. Prior to his tenure in the Navy Band, Roger was a member of The United States Coast Guard Band in New London, Connecticut. He has been a featured artist at numerous prestigious events including state music conventions, ITEA conventions, and The Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Mr. Behrend has also appeared as a guest artist five times in Sapporo, Japan.

A strong proponent of the euphonium, Roger Behrend has commissioned and premiered over twenty-five works for the instrument. He has also released compact discs, which highlight the euphonium in various genres. Roger Behrend is committed to teaching students and passing on his love of music. He is currently professor of euphonium and tuba at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and has an active private teaching studio.
 
Winning  the first place at the " Concours International d'Execution Musicale" in Geneva 1991, marked the beginning of an extraordinary career as a tuba soloists, for Jens Bjørn-Larsen.

He has also been awarded 1. Prize in Nordic Soloist Competition, Grand Victor Borge Award, the Japanese Bunkamura Prize and the European Juventus Award.

From 1987 until 2005, he held the position as principal tubist of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In 2002 Jens Bjørn-Larsen was appointed professor at the "Hochschule für Music und Theater," Hannover, becoming the only full-time distinguished professor for tuba in Europe.

He is busy travelling as an B&S and Melton Artist, playing recitals, performing solo concerti with major orchestras and giving Masterclasses both in Europe and Overseas.
 
Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate
vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over twelve operas. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, including over fifty CD’s of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.
As a vigorous, articulate advocate for the music and musicians of our time, in 1973 Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composer’s Forum, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for American arts. A former holder of the Papamarkou Chair at John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, Larsen has also held residencies with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony and the Colorado Symphony.