Gary earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire in 1976. His teachers have included Dominic Spera and Charles Schlueter, and he has performed with numerous Twin Cities musical groups for the past 27 years. He taught instrumental music in Prescott, Wisconsin, and the Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan, Minnesota, school district for 7 years before changing to his current profession as a senior systems analyst with the State of Minnesota.
Mel Olson, Trumpet
A native of Mendota, Illinois, Mel Olson first studied music with Eben Campbell and Robert S. Baile and later privately with Austin R. Edwards. Olson received a music degree in 1968 from Luther College in Decorah Iowa, where he studied conducting with Larry James Livingston and Weston Noble. For the past twenty years, he has been associated with the Phipps Center For the Arts where he has served as composer, arranger and conductor of the Phipps Orchestra. A member of ASCAP, Olson also holds a doctorate from Marquette University and is a practicing dentist in Hudson, Wisconsin.
James currently works as a forensic chemist with the Crime Lab of the St. Paul Police Department, and as an assistant professor of biology at a local liberal arts college. He performs regularly with the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra, and is also very active as a conductor for a number of brass, orchestral and theater groups in the Twin Cities area.
John Tranter, Trombone
John has performed and/or recorded with the Kansas City Symphony Brass Quintet, the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, the Kansas City Camarata, the American Wind Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Trujillo (Peru), the Tallahassee Symphony, the Palm Beach (FL) Opera, the IAJE Gil Evans Big Band, the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band, the Kansas City Boulevard Big Band, and as trombonist of the Skyline Brass, an ensemble-in-residence at Drake University and Iowa State University. John is currently in the Doctor of Music program at the University of Minnesota as a graduate assistant under Thomas Ashworth.
Jerry Greupner played in the 5th Army Band in Chicago in the mid '60s. During that time, he also played in the North Shore Wind Ensemble, under the direction of professor Emeritus G.C. Bainum, and Professor John Painter of Northwestern University. Since then, Jerry has performed with a number of groups in the Twin Cities area. In addition to the Windsor Brass, Jerry currently performs with the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra and the T.B. Sheldon Brass Band of Red Wing, MN. Jerry is also a retired Army bandsman.