Stuart Dempster (born July 7, 1936 in Berkeley, California) is a trombonist, didjeridu player, improviser, and composer.
Stuart Dempster (born July 7, 1936 in Berkeley, California) is a trombonist, didjeridu player, improviser, and composer.
After Dempster completed his studies at San Francisco State College, he was appointed assistant professor at the California State College at Hayward, and instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory (1960–66). During this period he was also a member of the Performing Group at Mills College, and from 1962 to 1966 was first trombonist in the Oakland Symphony Orchestra.
In 1967–68, he was a Creative Associate at the State University of New York at Buffalo under Lukas Foss. While there he helped organize the first commercial recording of Terry Riley's In C, in the 1964 premiere of which he had also performed (Schell 2020). The following year he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Washington, in Seattle, where he was promoted to full professor in 1985.
In 1971–72 he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, and in 1973 he was a senior Fulbright scholar to Australia (Tarr 2001; Anon. n.d.). In 1979 the University of California Press published his book, The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship award in 1981 (John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2015).
He has commissioned and performed works by Luciano Berio, Rob du Bois, Donald Erb, Robert Erickson, Andrew Imbrie, Ernst Krenek, and Robert Suderburg. He has collaborated with former classmate Pauline Oliveros and Panaiotis including co-founding the Deep Listening Band. He commissioned Theater Piece for Trombone Player (1966) from Oliveros and choreographer Elizabeth Harris.
Dempster practices yoga and breath control including circular breathing. (Von Gunden 1983, p. 38) He is credited with introducing the didjeridu to North America. (Ross 2008, p. 66)
