Catherine Motuz - Trombone

Catherine Motuz has an active career as a performer, teacher and scholar. She is co-director of the Ensemble Fedeli and has played with ensembles such as the Freiburg and Amsterdam Baroque Orchestras, Concerto Palatino, Les Cornets Noirs, Les Traversées Baroques, and others. Catherine has taught at McGill University, the Université de Montréal, and the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, and is currently a lecturer in historical trombone at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Catherine Motuz is from Ottawa, Canada, and studied historical trombone with Charles Toet at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 2004 to 2011. As a researcher, her main interests are historical improvisation pedagogy and ideas about musical expression and aesthetics in the 16th century. ======

Course description The course is aimed at students and professional musicians in the field of trombone in old scale. Mainly we will explore how to imitate a singer on the trombone, e.g. using historical articulations to express text, and imitating vocal ornamentation, including passaggi and grazie. We will work on different levels of diminution on the trombone: for advanced trombonists who want an introduction, we will build a base in the styles of Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo Dalla Casa, and for those who are already experienced, we will also explore the ornamentation styles of Giovanni Bovicelli and Francesco Rognoni. The repertoire we will focus on in 2025 will be late Renaissance music, but also instrumental music in Germany and Italy c.1600.