U of A Professor Wins Award for Album “Songs and Elegies”

Associate professor of trombone Cory Mixdorf has been awarded a Global Music Award “Outstanding Achievement for an Instrumental Album” for his debut record, Songs & Elegies.

Mixdorf had been planning the album for many years but wanted to focus on a specific side of his music.

“My focus was always to create an album that mostly focused on the cantabile side of the instrument. ‘Singing stories’ through the trombone has always been a part of my performance and pedagogy,” Mixdorf said. “The album is really split into three categories: elegies, vocal pieces and other song-related works. Elegies are typically written in memoriam of a loved one, and as such, I feel like I’m at my strongest when it comes to emoting in performance, since so many emotions are involved in the loss of someone close.”

The album doesn’t only focus on trombone performance, but also highlights vocal performance with trombone and piano accompaniment.  Joining Mixdorf on the album is U of A piano professor Miroslava Panayotova.

“Utilizing vocal repertoire is something I do often and encourage my students to do as well. When performing vocal repertoire, a story is already present; one only needs to bring the text to life in the interpretation of the melody. Here, I share the first vocal piece I ever performed (and still my favorite), Antonín Dvořák’s ‘Song to the Moon’ from Rusalka. Other vocal pieces include a Bach aria, a famous Tchaikovsky art song of loneliness, a spiritual composed by Arkansas native Florence Price and an unaccompanied song of desperation in Jane Martin’s ‘Adonai,’ which is based on Psalm 22.”

The final category are pieces originally written for the trombone that are very song-oriented. Norman Bolter’s The Song of King David depicts the life and struggles of the Old Testament king. Ross Wixon composed The Troubadour in 2011 and harkens back to the medieval singer/poets but set in a modern harmonic texture.

The last song on the album was the most personal for Mixdorf and his family.

“Susan Mutter’s Song of Survival was written in 2021 as a reflection of my then 4-year-old son, Meyer’s, journey through treatment of medulloblastoma, a form of brain cancer. I am ever thankful to God that Susan was able to compose this as a song and not an elegy. Her ability to capture humanity through this experience and the spirit of Meyer in this work is exceptional.”

The Global Music Awards is an international music competition that celebrates independent musicians and is widely recognized by industry insiders as giving legitimacy to highly talented artists.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.