Bill Simenson is the WBSM trumpet instructor and currently accepting students.
An active player in multiple ensembles in the Twin Cities jazz, latin-jazz, and big band scenes, WBSM trumpet faculty member, Bill Simenson, shares his passion for performance and education with lucky students. Bill says the community nature of WBSM and his love for the West Bank has kept him on our faculty for 15 years and counting, but he’s enjoyed this neighborhood ever since his days as an Augsburg music student in the 1980s. WBSM caught up with Bill last week to talk about teaching, advice for aspiring musicians, and the bands he plays in.
What do you like most about teaching? I think seeing progress that students make, finding a way to get them to move forward.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician? Finding the gigs with the economy and all the rest that’s going on. Finding venues for all the different kinds of groups I play in is definitely a challenge. And you can practice all you want, but it’s not the same as performing live.
What’s the best piece of advice you can giving to aspiring students who would like to be a performing artists? Listen to as much music as you can, preferable live, but recordings are okay. Fill your head with as much music as you possibly can.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to teach? Keep learning yourself, continuing education. Keep working , improving your own craft will help you with your own students; plus it will help you.
Most people dont know that I really love… Photography, black and white photography. I hope to take some pictures this weekend up in Grand Forks where I have a gig. Duck off the freeway and take some shots.
Bands Bill is playing in:Seven Steps to Havana has three horns, piano, bass, percussion and drums playing Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz. Wolverines Big Band is getting busier again and he’s been with them off and on since the 80s. That’s a classic band founded by Ted Unseth and Jendeen Forberg in the 1970s while Ted was teaching at WBSM. Now Jendeen is the leader. Jerry O’Hagan Ballroom Orchestra features foxtrot, tango, rumba, and waltzes. Recently Bill was spotted rehearsing with fellow WBSM faculty member Stefan Kac with the Consortium of Symphonic Transients playing original music by Stefan and other composers. He also is an active freelancer.
Simenson composes big band music and tells us that the trumpet community is looking forward to the May 2011 conference of the International Trumpet Guild at the Minneapolis Hilton.
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Meet Bill Simenson
An active player in multiple ensembles in the Twin Cities jazz, latin-jazz, and big band scenes, WBSM trumpet faculty member, Bill Simenson, shares his passion for performance and education with lucky students. Bill says the community nature of WBSM and his love for the West Bank has kept him on our faculty for 15 years and counting, but he’s enjoyed this neighborhood ever since his days as an Augsburg music student in the 1980s. WBSM caught up with Bill last week to talk about teaching, advice for aspiring musicians, and the bands he plays in.
What do you like most about teaching? I think seeing progress that students make, finding a way to get them to move forward.
What is the biggest challenge about being a performing musician? Finding the gigs with the economy and all the rest that’s going on. Finding venues for all the different kinds of groups I play in is definitely a challenge. And you can practice all you want, but it’s not the same as performing live.
What’s the best piece of advice you can giving to aspiring students who would like to be a performing artists? Listen to as much music as you can, preferable live, but recordings are okay. Fill your head with as much music as you possibly can.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring students who would like to teach? Keep learning yourself, continuing education. Keep working , improving your own craft will help you with your own students; plus it will help you.
Most people dont know that I really love… Photography, black and white photography. I hope to take some pictures this weekend up in Grand Forks where I have a gig. Duck off the freeway and take some shots.
Bands Bill is playing in: Seven Steps to Havana has three horns, piano, bass, percussion and drums playing Afro-Cuban and Latin Jazz. Wolverines Big Band is getting busier again and he’s been with them off and on since the 80s. That’s a classic band founded by Ted Unseth and Jendeen Forberg in the 1970s while Ted was teaching at WBSM. Now Jendeen is the leader. Jerry O’Hagan Ballroom Orchestra features foxtrot, tango, rumba, and waltzes. Recently Bill was spotted rehearsing with fellow WBSM faculty member Stefan Kac with the Consortium of Symphonic Transients playing original music by Stefan and other composers. He also is an active freelancer.
Simenson composes big band music and tells us that the trumpet community is looking forward to the May 2011 conference of the International Trumpet Guild at the Minneapolis Hilton.