November, 2018: Bruckner transcriptions by Randall Malmstrom

Randall Malmstrom started his professional trombone career at age 16 with the Portland Opera Orchestra. From that point forward, he became a first-call free-lance tenor, bass and contrabass trombonist for not only opera, but ballet, symphony, touring Broadway shows (such as Lion King, Chorus Line and may others), chamber music, concert soloist, and big bands. Credits include not only Portland Opera, but Seattle Opera, Oregon Symphony and Portland Symphonic Choir Orchestra to name a few. Also an educator at all levels, his arranging career stemmed from regular meetings with present and former members of the opera orchestra and other regional players. Randy has been fascinated with the music of Bruckner and he has made several arrangements of his works from trombone ensembles. Initially, all the arrangements were for 5 parts but grew to 8 as a result of requests from other ensembles such as Trombone Unit Hannover. Randy continues to add to his list of arrangements, as well as adding 8-part versions to his existing 5-part versions. The arrangements have been met with uniform praise, and are well suited for combinations of altos, tenors, basses, contras and/or tuba, as well as bass trumpet. As a result of requests from a well-known brass quintet overseas and a tuba ensemble in the states, plans are being undertaken to convert some of the arrangements and/or produce new arrangements for those instrumentations and more. Randy has been very generous with his music and I am please to offer two videos of his arrangement of Bruckner's Christus factus est. Corresponding scores are offered as well. Additional Bruckner transcription can be found here.