42nd Western Invitational Jazz Festival featuring trombonist Elliot Mason

Mr. Mason studied at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts on a full tuition scholarship where worked with Hal Crook and Phil Wilson. In 1994, Mr. Mason won the prestigious Frank Rosolino Award for outstanding trombone performance abilities and was invited to perform at the International Trombone Workshop. At eighteen, he won the ITW ‘s Under 29 Jazz Trombone competition, as well as the Slide Hampton Award in recognition of outstanding performance abilities from Berklee. After graduating from Berklee in 1996, Mr. Mason moved to New York City, where he distinguished himself as a respected and highly in demand trombone and bass trumpet player. In 2007, Elliot Mason was invited to become a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, directed by Wynton Marsalis. In 2011, Mr. Mason was asked to join NYU’s faculty as a jazz trombone instructor within their extensive Jazz Studies Program. Mr. Mason joined the faculty of Juilliard School of Music in 2016, as their jazz trombone instructor/studio class facilitator. Elliot is endorsed by B.A.C. musical instruments, he is currently playing on his own signature series line of custom trombones.

“Elliot’s unbelievable as a trombonist, there’s unworldly facility, virtuosity and clarity in his playing, he can sing a melody out from the trombone; it’s like a human voice the way he plays it” – Wynton Marsalis