Tom Plsek
Trombone explorer Tom Plsek has been stretching trombones and our concepts of them for years. His compositions include pieces for ensembles and solo trombone often incorporate improvisation, technology, and performance art. Tom has performed with such artists as Jerry Hunt, Malcolm Goldstein, Phill Niblock, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Joe Morris, Marjorie Morgan, and with the Outsider Quartet. He has performed at New Music American in 1983 and 1986. He was a member of the Mobius Artists Group from 1988-2021 and served as Chair of the Brass Department for many years at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
The Gu series, a monthly performance series created with Marjorie Morgan and based on one of the hexagrams from the I Ching, was selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten dance events in Boston for the year 2002. He performed a solo concert at the Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, Czech Republic in the summer of 2004. In May 2005 his piece “Collateral Damage Noted," for 100+ musicians, premiered on Boston city hall plaza to critical acclaim.
More recently he performed as guest composer/performer with EnsoArts in Galway, Ireland in November 2005, the Hochschule fur Musik in Trossingen, Germany in May 2006 and the Acoustical Society of America in Providence, Rhode Island, in June 2006. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of America for which he has given many presentations mostly about the use of technology with brass instruments. He is featured on several recording including "Firehouse Futurities," 1999: Rastascan Records (BRD038) and Tautology (005); and "Jump or Die; 21 Braxton Compositions 1992," Music and Arts (CD-843). The CD “MVP LSD” with Joe Morris, guitar and John Voigt, bass was officially released in April 2009. See more at:
Photo credit: Unkindness of Ravens, 2009, collaboration with Joanne Rice, photo by Bob Raymond.
