The University of Evansville’s William L. Ridgway College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music has announced the upcoming investiture of Timothy Zifer, DMA, as the holder of the University’s Oramay Cluthe Eades Distinguished Professorship in Music. The ceremony is planned for Saturday, March 2, at 1:30 p.m. in Neu Chapel.
The Oramay Cluthe Eades Distinguished Professorship in Music was established through a generous gift to UE from the Eades Foundation. Oramay Cluthe Eades and her husband, Alvin Q. Eades, were longtime supporters of the University of Evansville and benefactors of its Department of Music.
Cluthe Eades was a graduate of Combs Conservatory in Philadelphia with majors in harp and piano. She was the originator of the Cluthe School of Music in Cluthe Hall in 1924. The Cluthe School became affiliated with Evansville College in 1940. All advanced students matriculated into Evansville College and the young students remained at Cluthe Hall, which later became known as the EC Preparatory School of Music. The Cluthe School was donated to Evansville College by Cluthe Eades in 1942. The prep school moved onto campus in 1962 when Krannert Hall of Art and Music was completed.
Cluthe Eades presented a memo to the Evansville College Board of Trustees with the recommendation to create an Evansville School of Music. She offered to serve as director of the school free of charge for three years until the school was self-sufficient. Her reasoning for transitioning her private school into a civic one was that a civic school would be more permanent; it would gain the support of more people and make possible a larger, more complete school; and that by making the school known as a nonprofit educational institution, public-spirited citizens would make bequests to the school.
Cluthe Eades wanted the new school to have membership in the National Association of Schools of Music. The present faculty has been selected with that end in view and is acceptable to the National Association.
Zifer, a UE professor of music, earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Ohio University, his master’s degree in trumpet performance from Louisiana State University, and his doctorate in trumpet performance with a minor in wind conducting from Louisiana State University.
Zifer teaches courses in applied trumpet, UE Jazz Ensembles, UE Trumpet Ensemble, jazz studies, and music management courses. He received the Dean’s Teaching Award in 2010. Zifer is the principal trumpet of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and is an active soloist and recitalist. He also serves as the principal trumpet and founding member of the Shepard Brass (UE faculty brass quintet). Most recently, Zifer recorded Robert Russell Bennett’s Rose Variations with the UE Wind Ensemble on their CD recording project.
Prior to taking over the jazz studies program, Zifer served as director of bands (1996-2008). During this time the University of Evansville wind ensemble toured over 20 states and appeared at the 2001 International Trumpet Guild Conference, competed in the 2002 International Hawaiian Music Festival, and performed at the 2006 and 2008 Indiana Music Educators Association conventions.
The UE Jazz Ensemble I has performed and competed at the prestigious Elmhurst College Jazz Festival from 2008 to the present, having received two honorable mentions, outstanding soloist award, and recognition for an original composition by a student. The UE Jazz Ensemble I has hosted numerous internationally acclaimed musicians during the past few years, including trumpeters Doc Severinsen and Allen Vizzutti, vocalists Diane Schuur and The New York Voices, and drummer Max Weinberg.
The UE Jazz Ensemble also hosts an annual Jazz Band Invitational bringing in over 13 high school and college jazz bands from across the tri-state area.
The UE Trumpet Ensemble has performed at the 2001 and 2004 International Trumpet Guild Conferences, the 2011 University of Kentucky TrumpetFest, and the 2015 Orvieto TrumpetFest in Orvieto Italy.
In 2001, Zifer served as the conference host for the International Trumpet Guild Conference on the campus of UE. The conference brought in over 800 attendees from around the world and featured recitals, lectures, exhibits, and clinics by some of the world’s leading trumpet professionals.
