Welcome to the Toot Suite Brass Publishing Solo and Ensemble series of solo collections. These collections are intended for several different educational purposes:
Middle and high school students may select 2-4 pieces in a collection to perform at a solo and ensemble festival.
The pieces, which are presented in a variety of key and time signatures, may be used to familiarize students with specific key and time signatures.
The pieces may be used as transposition exercises for more advanced students.
More advanced students may be challenged to develop and apply a musical ornamentation scheme to these pieces, to be applied the second time through the repeated section (including the first ending).
These 8 collections are the result of a collaborative effort by:
Professor Jean Moorehead Libs (pedagogic vision)
Bill Wilson (transcription and arranging)
Dr. Alex Wilson (trumpet parts editing)
Ying-Jou Huang (piano parts editing)
Gloria Wilson (production)
Alex Wilson, Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Grand Valley State University, holds a Bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University, where he studied with Richard Stoelzel; and a Master's degree and Doctorate of Musical Arts from Arizona State University, where he studied with David Hickman. He has also studied with Jean Moorehead Libs.
Alex has played with the Arizona Opera, the Phoenix Symphony, the Holland Symphony Orchestra, and currently subs with the Grand Rapids Symphony. He has also toured Asia with Shen Yun Performing Arts as well as performed as soloist for the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra during two national tours, at venues including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Alex was a performer at the 2013 International Trumpet Guild conference in Grand Rapids. During his studies, Alex won 1st prize in the International Trumpet Guild’s orchestral excerpts competition in 2010, 1st place in the 2008 National Trumpet Competition as part of a Grand Valley trumpet ensemble, and 2nd place in the National Trumpet Competition’s undergraduate and graduate solo divisions in 2010 and 2012, respectively. He also performed as a soloist with both the GVSU Symphony Orchestra and the ASU Symphony Orchestra. Alex has edited and published hundreds of pieces for brass ensemble.
Jean Moorehead Libs received her B.M.E and M.M. in Music Education and Trumpet Performance from the University of Michigan School of Music while studying with Prof. Emeritus Clifford P. Lillya; she continued at Michigan doing Post Graduate and Doctoral studies with Armando Ghitalla, Prof. Emeritus and former Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Professor Libs’ teaching credentials include positions at Olivet College, The United World College of Southeast Asia, Northern Michigan University, Wayne State University, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, the University of Michigan All-State program at Interlochen, and Grand Valley State University where she recently completed her 8th season on the faculty of the GVSU International Trumpet Seminar. A dedicated educator, her many preparatory students have held leading positions in the University of Michigan's Youth Ensembles, numerous State Honor Bands, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Youth Orchestras and the Interlochen All State Youth Orchestras and Bands. Dozens of her students have gone on to major in music performance and education across the country and several have received prizes at the National Trumpet Competition, as Yamaha Young Artists and in the International Trumpet Guild student competition. Dozens of her former students hold university teaching positions as well as membership in professional orchestras. Formerly the Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphony, Libs remains active performing with Today's Brass Quintet, the Michigan Sinfonietta, The Ann Arbor Symphony and The Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra.
For over two decades Professor Libs has served as an adjudicator and clinician at numerous district and state solo and ensemble and band and orchestra festivals for MSBOA (Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association). Currently she is Adjunct Prof. of Trumpet at Concordia University in Ann Arbor and maintains a large private studio with students ranging in age from beginner to graduate school.
During her tenure as Pedagogical Topics editor for the International Trumpet Guild Journal, Professor Libs was the author and editor of dozens of articles with many of America's leading trumpeters. Presently she is the chair of the ITG's Young Artist Award Column, a contributing editor for Balquidder Music, Elan Brass Press and a clinician for Stork Custom Mouthpieces. Jean recently completed the second edition of Clifford P. Lillya's Method Book Two with colleagues Rob Roy McGregor and Dennis Horton.
Ying-Jou “Tiger” Huang is a freelance cellist in the Grand Rapids area. Formerly, Ms. Huang performed with the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra and toured North America and Asia in a Shen Yun Performing Arts pit orchestra. She has a Master’s in Music from Northern Illinois University, and a Bachelor’s from the National University of Tainan.
Bill Wilson enjoyed a rewarding career as a software developer. He is now an active tubist in southeastern Michigan and has arranged hundreds of Tin Pan Alley era songs for brass quintet.
Gloria Wilson is an active French hornist in southeastern Michigan and has worked on Toot Suite Brass Publishing book production for years.