Prep Alumni Spotlight: Robert Couture '76 Prep, '80

Robert Couture '76 Prep, '80 is a graduate of NEC and is retired principal trombone at Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, and 2nd trombone with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He has toured with the Handel and Haydn Society, Alea III, and the Boston Pops. He performed extensively in the various New England regional orchestras as well as the Boston Musical Theaters. He was founder of the Lenox Brass Quintet and a member of the Cantabrigia Quintet. He has recorded with the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, New England Ragtime Ensemble, Boston Camerata, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dinosaur Annex, and Handel and Haydn Society to name a few. One recording with the Handel and Haydn Society, Lamentations and Praises by John Tavener, won two Grammy awards in 2003 for best chamber composition and best performance by a chamber orchestra. Another recording with the New England Ragtime Ensemble is featured in the Ken Burns documentary, Jazz, where you can hear Mr. Couture's trombone solo in Jelly Roll Morton's Smokehouse Blues. He has served on several university faculties as instructor and adjunct, most recently Tufts University.

As a Boston Musicians’ Association board member, vice president, and labor negotiator, Robert led countless bargaining committees in successful negotiations of collective bargaining agreements. As a labor organizer, he helped facilitate successful union organizing campaigns and led successful collective bargaining negotiations for first union contracts at: Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Cape Symphony Orchestra, Emmanuel Music Orchestra, New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Huntington Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Lyric Stage of Boston, and Ogunquit Playhouse.

Along with his Bachelor's Degree of Music in Trombone Performance from NEC, Robert also earned a Master's Degree in English and a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution from UMass Boston. Robert was also a Fellowship Student at the Berkshire Music Center in 1984. He has lived in Boston throughout his career and especially enjoyed walking to the various music venues where he worked, always happy to have his trombone strapped to his back

What does NEC Prep mean to you?

I'll never forget that first MYWE rehearsal in the fall of 1974, walking into NEC, that hotbed of music and musicians. The sounds seemed to be coming from everywhere: the walls, the ceilings, and of course Jordan Hall where we would be rehearsing. There was a long table in the gritty backstage area (NEC was not as shiny as it is today!) with packets for each of us students. And who other than a young NEC upperclassman named Bruce Creditor '75, '77 MM, was handing out music and informational packets to us. He was Frank Battisti '12 hon. DM's assistant then, always organized, welcoming, and efficient. Who would have known then that we would later perform together as members of Gunther Schuller’s New England Ragtime Ensemble, and that he would one day become Personnel Manager at the BSO. And then when I took my assigned seat in Jordan Hall, I was near John Huling '80, that dazzling trombone player who would one day become Assistant Principal Trombone of the National Symphony and one of my best friends while attending NEC. My good friend and esteemed colleague, Peter Cirelli '81, was also in the section along with Steve Olans, both of whom made careers in Boston. And a year later, who was our MYWE trombone coach, but the great alumnus, Don Sanders '77 MM, who would become my mentor and closest colleague in Boston, years later. And there were several others onstage, in the ensemble, who I would ultimately work with for decades in my long performing career. What a privilege to have known these folks for so long. What an incredibly beneficial world NEC created for us young aspiring musicians!

And then we started rehearsal with our MYWE conductor, Frank Battisti, who had an uncanny way of talking to us young folks with a sense of integrity, always recognizing the importance of the task before us. "People!" he would implore, "You must concentrate."  To him, the very act of learning was full of integrity, and though there was never a question that he knew we had a lot to learn, he also showed tremendous respect for our potential to make music at a high level. Our tour to the Soviet Union, and all the preparation in advance of that tour, provided a heightened opportunity for the organization and for each of us as individuals to contribute in a meaningful way to our shared success.

Those were certainly heady days for me. I count myself extraordinarily fortunate to have received that most special education from the NEC Prep Department. No question, it was a life changing experience for me and so many of us. Thank you! 

Can you share an experience you've had in your career that has felt the most rewarding?

I had countless rewarding experiences over my 45-year career as a working musician in Boston, but I suppose the most novel and challenging was performing as principal trombone in Boston Ballet’s 2015 presentation of John Neumeier’s Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler. Anyone who knows that symphony will recognize the particular prominence of the principal trombone solos, especially in its epically long first movement. The sheer number of performances and rehearsals we did over a two-week period for the Mahler was astounding to me: four rehearsals and nine performances—one Saturday included two performances, a maintnee and evening show separated only by four hours. I’m not a historian, but that Boston Ballet production ought to be in the annuls of the Guiness Book of Records!

In preparation for the two-week marathon, I had nothing to which I could compare it in terms of the raw endurance which would be required, mental and physical, over fourteen days. Because the Ballet Orchestra for the Mahler was much larger than the norm, the trombone and tuba (Don Rankin '78) section had to be positioned outside the orchestra pit at the edge of the audience. So close were we to the patrons sitting near our trombone bells, my section colleague and friend, Hans Bohn, greeted them before each performance, offering ear plugs with a smile. I was practically standing in the front row, so it had the feel of a concerto performance to me.

Fortunately, each performance went well. I made what I thought were meaningful contributions, night in, night out, to a tremendously successful effort by the dancers and my wonderful orchestra colleagues. Indeed, it has been such an honor to perform for so many years with our great world-class Boston musicians—I’ve always felt fortunate to be onstage among them, many of whom graduated from NEC. We had a lot of fun and I thought my low brass section and the whole company shined throughout.

As a Prep and College alumni, please share what inspires you most about NEC.

As a freshman at seventeen years old, what I saw that I needed to learn at the NEC was so daunting as to be frightening. The musicians there seemed tremendously advanced and far out of my league, especially the graduate students. I remember attending my first trombone master class, held by John Swallow, and thinking that I couldn’t even hear fast enough to keep up with some of the French etude stuff guys were playing. Did I have what it would take to play that well? I certainly tried, spending my whole career working to be worthy of the music I was playing, worthy of the level of playing my esteemed colleagues brought to every service, worthy of my own goal of being an important voice in Boston as an artist and as a member of our professional music community.

From the very first moment I walked into NEC as a 15 year old, the bar was set high by an institution dedicated to excellence, through and through.

Share a story about one of your favorite faculty or studio instructors.

I studied with John Coffey '27 in my senior year of high school and my freshman year at NEC. I remember asking him once, “Do I have enough talent to make it as a professional trombone player? He replied, “Depends on how much you’re willing to sweat, kid.”

On building and sustaining a career, he said, “Remember, kid, you pass the same people on the way up as you’ll probably pass on the way down. Always stay humble. You need to be a little conceited on the inside, but never show it on the outside.”

On practicing difficult passages and performing under pressure, he said, “Just tongue and blow, kid. Tongue and blow—that’s all there is to it.” 

Do you have any advice for young professionals, musicians, and current NEC students?

I studied with John Swallow at NEC for three years. He had a long career and had “done it all,” mostly in NYC. He was principal trombone in the New York City Ballet and a member of the  New York Brass Quintet among other ensembles. Swallow was quick to remind me and all his students that the very people who you may be competing with for positions at NEC are very likely the same people who would one day turn out to be your colleagues in the professional world. Playing well is not the only attribute necessary to forging a successful career, but fostering good relations with potential colleagues could prove almost as important.

Learn More About Robert:

Current Job: Retired Principal Trombone at Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, and 2nd Trombone with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
Programs: NEC Preparatory School, Bachelor of Music
Instrument: Trombone

Calling all NEC Prep Alumni!