Robert Slack, MM
Applied Instructor, Trumpet; Director of Jazz Ensemble
Robert Slack received an MM in Trumpet Performance from Indiana University School of Music; since then, he has grown to be a respected professional in the music industry. While at IU, Mr. Slack studied with renowned trumpet teacher William Adam, receiving tremendous insight when he was chosen to be a teaching assistant for his trumpet studio. Some of today’s top performers and educators began their careers in William Adam’s studio.
Mr. Slack shares with students an impressive résumé of personal and professional experience; he has extensive experience with virtually every type of musical style, including orchestras, brass quintets, chamber ensembles, jazz, and pop groups. Mr. Slack worked in Las Vegas, performing in major production shows and with solo acts at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, the Hilton, and the Golden Nugget, backing up artists such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Julio Iglesias, and Tom Jones. After touring with Buddy Rich and Paul Anka, he relocated to Los Angeles.
While in Los Angeles, Mr. Slack has been an active teacher and recording musician. His recording sessions include accounts for Mattel Toys, Toyota, Hanna-Barbera, Diet Coke, Pillsbury, Mary Tyler Moore Productions, Mad About You, Ford Motor Co., Taco Bell, Tri-Star Pictures, Disneyland, NBC, CBS, and CNN News. Just a few film credits include The Shipment, Disney’s D3: The Mighty Ducks, Casper, Dillinger and Capone, and dozens of projects for HBO and the hit movie That Thing You Do, to name a few. Mr. Slack has performed at the White House and for a CBS TV production at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., An Evening with President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Slack also taught at Citrus College for thirty years, developing many of the outstanding programs within the Visual and Performing Arts division. Fourteen of those years he was the Dean of the Visual and Performing Arts programs. Mr. Slack is still busy performing, teaching, and recording; he is a trumpet professor at Azusa Pacific University, where he has taught for the past twenty years.
Education
- MM, Trumpet Performance, Indiana University School of Music
- BA, Music, California State University
Academic Area
- School of the Arts
Expertise
- Trumpet Performance
- Jazz Studies
Courses Taught
- MUS 1B1 – Applied Brass
- MUS 1B2 – Applied Brass
- MUS 2B1 – Applied Brass
- MUS 2B2 – Applied Brass
- MUS 3B1 – Applied Brass
- MUS 3B2 – Applied Brass
- MUS 153 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 154 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 253 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 254 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 357 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 358 – Chamber Ensemble: Brass
- MUS 382 – Jazz and Commercial Ensemble