Symphony - Trombone (or Cello) and Piano

Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) was a composer, conductor, composition teacher, and music school administrator.  He was Swiss-born and took advanced studies in Germany and France.  He became an American citizen in 1924, but lived in Switzerland again during 1930-39.  He had briefly been a symphonic conductor in Switzerland and continued to appear as a guest conductor, mostly of his own works. 

His music was by turns spiritual, nationalistic, or abstract.  He is best known for his rhapsody for cello and orchestra entitled Schelomo, but he was also a versatile composer for other solo instruments, piano, string quartet, chorus, and orchestra.

Bloch suffered from numerous afflictions, including nervous troubles, suicide attempts, and cancer.  He was married with three children.

During the 1910s Bloch taught at the Conservatory of Geneva and the David Mannes School in New York.  He was founding director of the Cleveland Institute (1920-25) and director of the San Francisco Conservatory (1925-30).  He gave lectures at the University of California at Berkeley from 1939 to 1952.  He continued composing until 1958.

The Symphony for Trombone was composed in 1953-54 for Davis Shuman, a trombone recitalist and teacher at Juilliard.  Bloch did not accept a fee for the music, as a result of which Mrs. Shuman sent annual fruitcakes to the Blochs.  Shuman played the first performance on April 4, 1956 with the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting.  The piano reduction was prepared by the composer.  Includes alternative, simplified solo part.