Norman Bolter

Norman Bolter is an assistant professor of trombone.

Bolter began playing trombone at age nine, later studying with Ronald Rickets, Steven Zellmer and John Swallow. A Tanglewood Fellow and C.D. Jackson Award winner, Bolter joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1975 at age 20. He played with the BSO for 32 years and continues to maintain an active playing and conducting schedule. He also served as principal trombonist of the Boston Pops Orchestra and was a founding member of the Empire Brass Quintet, winning the Walter H. Naumberg Award.

Bolter has recorded with the BSO, Boston Pops, Empire Brass, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Minnesota Orchestra, and has five recordings of his own compositions, including Anew at Home. His works also appear on recordings by Joseph Alessi, Ronald Barron, James Miller, Douglas Yeo, Charles Schlueter, and Peter Maunder. A prolific composer, Bolter's works are performed regularly throughout the world.

Bolter also serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music. His conducting and coaching positions include the New England Conservatory Trombone Ensemble and brass chamber groups. He founded both the brass repertoire class at NEC and the trombone choir in the NEC Preparatory School. Bolter also has served on the faculties of Mannes School of Music and Boston University, as a member of quintet in residence Empire Brass Quintet; the University of South Florida and the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, where he also taught composition; Boston University Tanglewood Institute; and the Tanglewood Music Center. Bolter's students have included not only trombonists, but French hornists, trumpeters, and tubists, many of whom hold positions in major symphony orchestras, chamber music groups, and universities around the world. He conducts ongoing master classes and clinics worldwide (face-to-face or virtually via Skype and iChat), co-directs the Frequency Band and is author of several studies, texts, and a multimedia music blog, Frequency Bone, via which he also conducts his online summer music camp.