Russell McKinney has long been interested and involved in sacred choral music. His first significant experiences came as a youth participating in the music program of Muir's Chapel United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. he sang in choirs, sand and acted in musicals ("You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and "Godspell"), and conducted the Chancel Choir in special programs at MCUMC, as well as playing the trombone and other instruments for services and special programs during his teenage years. Perhaps the most significant early experience was preparing and conducting the Muir's Chapel Chancel Choir and wind ensemble in a performance of Bruckner's "Second Mass in E Minor" in 1980 when he was a senior in high school. After volunteering in church music programs all over the country as he moved to pursue his orchestral career, Mr. McKinney accepted a position with the Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City as Music Director in 1998. During that period he began composing sacred choral music as well as more than doubling the size of the choir from 12 to over 27 during the first two years of his five year tenure. In 2003, he left Mount Tabor to accept the position of Choir Director at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Salt Lake City. In the two years since Mr. McKinney began, the choir has grown from 12 to 22 members and is still growing. Annual concerts and special choral services have been reintroduced and repertoire has expanded to include classic sacred works from several centuries as well as new pieces of worth from a variety of styles. In addition, Mr. McKinney is the Managing Director for a new series of concerts began in 2005, the First Presbyterian Church's Community Concert Series.
Rusty is the Bass Trombonist of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 1989. Before coming to Utah, he was Bass Trombonist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra during the 1988-89 season as a sabbatical replacement, participating in all activities including tours and recordings with the Grammy Award winning orchestra. Prior to that he was a member of the core orchestra of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Association. He has served as a substitute musician with both the Baltimore Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. as well as the Kennedy Center Orchestra of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He also spent four seasons on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina.
Rusty is a clinician for Edwards Instruments. He regularly makes appearances as a soloist and guest artist locally and in other states. Recent appearances include master classes and recitals at Brigham Young University-Idaho, University of Nevada Las Vegas and a solo recital at First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. He was a featured soloist at the 19th Annual UNLV 76+4 Trombones and has appeared as soloist with the University of Utah's Wind Ensemble and the Utah Youth Orchestra. Former engagements for recitals and master classes have been at such institutions as Ithaca College, Idaho State University– Pocatello, Snow College, and the 1998 International Trombone Festival in Boulder, Colorado with the Utah Symphony Trombone Section.
From 1995-2005, Rusty built a maintained a successful trombone studio at the University of Utah. He began as an Adjunct Instructor and was promoted twice ending his tenure there as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Music in his final three years. During his tenure at the University of Utah, Rusty also founded the University of Utah Trombone Ensemble (UUTE). This innovative ensemble started in the Fall of 1998 with eight members (the current trombone majors and a few marching band trombonists) and grew to average of 22 trombonists per concert plus percussionists and rhythm section. UUTE gave its first public concert at First Presbyterian Church in 1999 and has given two concerts at FPC since as well playing for the Rededication Service at FPC in November of 2003. UUTE continues now as an independent ensemble and stands for Utah's Ultimate Trombone Ensemble. FPC is the group's new home.
Having recently been appointed Director of Low Brass Studies at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, Rusty will begin that adjunct teaching post in the Fall of 2005. His duties will include teaching trombone, bass trombone, and tuba lessons as well as conducting the trombone choir and coordinating low brass studies.
Rusty attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore receiving Peabody's Gustav Klemm Award for exemplary work in his chosen field of study, Trombone Performance. He was also a Bellinger Orchestra Scholarship recipient for the Chautauqua Institute in New York state in 1983.
Rusty was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and graduated with honors from the Walter Hines Page High School in 1980. He has been married to his High School sweetheart, Linda (nee Sutton) for more than 20 years, and they reside in Salt Lake City with their three children, Nathaniel, Laura, and Abbie and their five cats. Linda is the band director for Redeemer Lutheran, Grace Lutheran and Lutheran High Schools in Salt Lake City.
Larry Blackburn is organist at First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City, accompanist for the Wasatch Chorale in Utah Valley and recording studio pianist/accompanist. Larry has a Masters degree in organ performance from Brigham Young University, and a Bachelors degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Mr. Blackburn is a staff accompanist at BYU, performs and teaches at the annual BYU Organ Workshop and recently served as an adjunct professor in the Theater and Film department at Utah Valley State College. Mr. Blackburn has performed with the Utah Symphony and performs regularly on the historic Tabernacle and Conference Center organs on Temple Square as a guest organist. Larry comes to Utah after serving the Minnesota Bach Society and an Episcopal parishes in St. Paul, Minnesota and, previously, in Santa Barbara, California where he also taught at Westmont College. Larry has performed in Canada, England, Poland, Estonia, and Russia. Larry and his wife Erna have two children.
