Demondrae Thurmon
I am originally from Northport, Alabama which is just over the bridge from Tuscaloosa where I currently live.
Education – I received my undergraduate degree in Euphonium Performance from the University of Alabama in 1996. I won the Birmingham Music Club scholarship in 1994 and was lucky enough to have been awarded the overall prize. I completed my master’s degree in Euphonium Performance in 1996 and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I returned to the University of Alabama and earned a doctorate in Trombone Performance in 2010. I’m so grateful for having won the scholarship because it afforded me the opportunity to purchase my first euphonium. I was playing a university-issued instrument at the time that I won.
Currently – I serve as Professor of Music at Indiana University where my primary role is teaching euphonium, brass chamber music coordinator and coach, and conductor of the brass choir and brass band. This job was created for me in 2017 and I began my tenure the following year. I also teach low brass at Samford University as an adjunct professor, which means that I have a car at an airport 7 days a week! Music is a huge part of my daily life because of my career as a professor and professional performer. My wife, Jenny Grégoire, is the violin professor at the University of Alabama and both our kids are heavily involved in music and the arts. I’m not currently involved with any community activities outside of my service to Samford, but I did serve as Resident Conductor of the Tuscaloosa Symphony for many years. I conducted the orchestra last in 2016.
Most treasured music-related accomplishment or accolade – This is such a tough question! I tend not to magnify one thing over another as it relates to my life in music. Every single occasion to make music, teach it, or listen to it is meaningful for me. I feel so fortunate. If I had to isolate one, I would say touring with the New York Philharmonic in 2016 was something I never imagined for myself. Teaching at the IU Jacobs School of Music is pretty cool as well.
Future plans – My future plans include continuing to work in higher education, make recordings of music for low brass as a soloist and chamber musician, and create music that incorporates Hip-hop/RB into classical music. My long-term goal is to play as a euphonium soloist with a major orchestra. Fingers Crossed!!
A favorite memory involving musical performance/study and favorite piece performed – These questions are so difficult!! A memory that stands out for me is from 1999. I played in the Sotto Voce Quartet and we begin as a student ensemble in 1996 when we were all studying at UW-Madison. As a tuba/euphonium quartet, we took ourselves very seriously because we assumed that we were fighting an uphill battle as it related to being looked at as a legitimate chamber group. We were quite successful in competitions at all levels including the Fischoff and New York Concert Artists Guild competitions. But in 1998, we won the chamber music competition at a low brass summer institute that offered a cash prize and an opportunity to perform at the 1999 United States Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop. We were extremely nervous for that performance because while we had started our professional careers by the time we were to perform, just the previous year, we’d play that workshop as students. We were also set to give the world premiere of Consequences, a piece written by quartet member Mike Forbes. At the time, there was nothing quite as difficult to play as that piece. We opened the concert with that work and the audience of our peers and lovers of our instruments gave us a standing ovation upon its completion! It was a euphoric feeling for us and gave us the extra motivation to stay together as an ensemble. Here we are some 20 years and 5 recordings later.
Words of encouragement or advice for students studying music today…
While it may seem like an uphill journey to study music, I don’t believe it has to be if you have a genuine love of music first, your instrument second, and your career destination last. Modern parenting is fixated on making sure that the children are successful. Successful is such a relative term. It’s hard to be successful in music if you don’t feel self-motivated to practice one day to the next. Those seemingly small victories will help lead to the career that one wants to have. More importantly, they keep you hungry for more as you study day to day. Become musically curious. Listen to a wide variety of music and musicians in order to have references to use as classical continues to evolve and become more inclusive. Lastly, choose the right undergraduate program. That program should support your growth as a musician, align with your personality type which will make it easier to transition from high school life, and lastly, it should help open doors for you once you graduate from that program.
