Staff

Dr. Alex van Duuren is a dynamic and versatile trombonist currently serving as Associate Professor of Trombone and Coordinator of the Brass and Percussion Area at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Alex enjoys an active career as a solo and chamber performer, performing solo recitals recently at the Universidad de Las Artes in Guayaquil, Ecuador and upcoming in May 2023 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. In the past five years van Duuren has performed 40 recitals, solo and with brass quintets, at venues nationally and internationally. Alongside colleage Katie Johnson-Webb, he commissioned composer Kevin Day of a Concerto for Horn, Trombone, and Wind Ensemble that was given a world premier at the University of Tennessee in 2022, with more performances upcoming.

He is a member of the Quintasonic Brass Quintet with colleagues Vince DiMartino, Jason Dovel, Matthew Haislip, and Alexander Lapins. Alex has performed with a variety of professional ensembles including the Knoxville Symphony and Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Greenville Symphony, Symphony Augusta, Brevard Philharmonic, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora, among others. In addition to his activities on trombone, he performs regularly on piano, serving as an accompanist for his students and guest artists at the University of Tennessee.

In addition to maintaining a robust performing schedule, Alex also enjoys an active career in the recording studio, and his solo album, Vocalizations, is available on most streaming services. He can be heard playing trombone and bass trombone on the 2020 film The Wolf of Snow Hollow, with the American Chamber Winds on Radix Tyrannis and Live at WASBE (Mark Custom Records), and in the capacity of producer on La Loba, a solo album released by Dr. Katie Johnson-Webb on Summit Records.

Alex completed his doctorate at the University of Arizona, simultaneously completing a doctoral minor in Entrepreneurship through the Eller College of Management and the nationally renowned McGuire Entrepreneurship Program. In 2018, Alex van Duuren was honored with the Governor’s School for the Fine Arts Outstanding Teacher Award.

UT Trombone Studio website

• B.M. in Trombone Performance - University of Florida (2008)
• M.M. in Chamber Music - University of Michigan (2010)
• M.M. in Trombone Performance - University of Michigan (2010) 
• D.M.A. in Trombone Performance - University of Arizona (2014)