About the Site:

The idea for this site came about during my undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky in early 2001. In the fall of 2008, the Graduate and Professional Student Association at Arizona State University selected this project as one of its Research Grant Competition winners, awarding a generous grant to fund this project in part as terminal doctoral research.

About the Author:

Dr. Seth T. Vatt currently serves as Professor of Low Brass at Dallas College, performing and teaching as a freelance bass trombonist and music educator in Dallas, TX. He can currently be heard as the bass trombonist with Kris Berg's Metroplexity Big Band. Seth has previously served on the performance faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University, and at Arizona State University with brass legends Ralph Sauer and Sam Pilafian. While living in Phoenix he performed with the Phoenix Symphony, Superstition Jazz Orchestra, and Scottsdale Arts Orchestra and was also on faculty teaching music humanities at Phoenix College. In 2010 he earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance while serving as a graduate teaching assistant to Gail Wilson and Ralph Sauer at Arizona State University.

Dr. Vatt also holds a Master of Music in Trombone Performance degree from ASU and a Bachelors of Music in Music Education from the University of Kentucky. There he was a founding member of the Momus Trombone Quartet, receiving a prestigious research and creativity grant to fund their first CD, "The Lexingport Project" and to compete as a finalist in the 2002 ITF Trombone Quartet Competition. Other performance credits include the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, DiMartino/Osland Jazz Orchestra, Superstition Jazz Orchestra, Mesa Symphony, Tucson Symphony, New England Brass Band, Arizona Musicfest, Phoenix Theater, and Victory Brass Quintet. Seth also maintains an active low brass studio in the Allen, McKinney, and Lovejoy school districts, mentoring over 30 students ranging from 6th grade to all-state high school to college level.

In 2015 he launched an ongoing series of orchestral excerpt books entitled "The Perceptive Trombonist: An Annotated Listening Guide To Orchestral Excerpts." Its' review in the International Trombone Association Journal states that "at this level of detail, it appears Seth Vatt has set out for himself a lifetime of work that, if completed, will not likely be rivaled in the pedagogy of trombone orchestral excerpts."

An active arranger, his music can be found published with Kagarice Brass Editions and Momus Music Editions. His teachers include Ralph Sauer, Dale Warren, Scott Hartman, and Gail Eugene Wilson.