"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than every before."
-Leonard Bernstein
25 November 1963
All About Me
A native of Lake Orion, MI, Spencer Aston is the instructor of trumpet at Bridgewater State University where he leads the BSU Bear Band and teaches applied trumpet lessons as well as various music theory/history courses within the department. Prior to his appointment at BSU, he served on the faculties at UMass Boston, Boston University, and the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Aston maintains a highly active performance schedule throughout New England. As a conductor, he is comfortable leading any combination of musicians in the orchestra or wind band literature. Aston played a major role in the creation of an orchestral program at the Powers Music School where he served as the Director of the Massachusetts Youth Symphony Project as well as principal conductor for the Chamber Orchestra. He is also the Music Director of the Windham Concert Band in Windham, NH. As a trumpet player, Dr. Aston holds regular positions as principal trumpet in the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Bangor Symphony Orchestra (ME) and second trumpet in the Glens Falls Symphony (NY). Other recent orchestral appearances include the Vista Philharmonic Orchestra, New Bedford Symphony, Odyssey Opera, and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Aston is an active adjudicator and clinician for competitions and educational ensembles including most recently the MMEA Central District Festival Junior Orchestra, the National Trumpet Competition, the Brookline Symphony Concerto Competition, and the BSU Jazz Festival. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, Master of Music degree from the University of New Mexico, and Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music.
