The Friends of Music at St. Thomas’s will present an event titled Trombone Virtuosos. The March 28 concert features Constance Prost, winner of the 2025 International Trombone Festival’s Gilberto Gagliardi Competition, and Shin Tanaka, bass trombonist with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.
The trombone is rarely featured as a solo instrument, and music lovers will get a chance to see two talents virtuosos performing a variety of works.
LV caught up with Constance Prost to talk about the instrument, and what she’ll be playing.
The Performers
Constance Prost
Constance Prost is a native of Ottawa, currently in her second year of the Bachelor of Music in Trombone Performance at The Glenn Gould School. The 19 year-old musician performed the piece The Composer is Dead with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in their Young People’s Concert Series in November 2025.
She is also a regular performer with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra and has appeared with the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she plays as a member of the Glenn Gould School Trombone Quartet and the Cacaphony Brass Quintet.
In addition with her win at the Gilberto Gagliardi Competition at the International Trombone Festival, Constance’s talent has been recognized by the Don Renshaw Bursary at the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition in 2024, and the The Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarship. In September 2025, Constance was named a Shires Rising Artist.
Alongside performing and studying, Constance occasionally teaches private students, and serves as a mentor with the Oscar Peterson Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
The Glenn Gould School Trombone Quartet (Constance Prost (BMus ’28); Ken Kagawa (BMus ’26); Ilan Mendel (ADP ’26); Shin Tanaka (BMus ’28)) performs “Achieved is the glorious work” by Haydn in April 2025:
Shin Tanaka
A native of Setagaya, Tokyo, bass trombonist Shin Tanaka is a second year student at The Glenn Gould School, working towards his Bachelor’s degree in performance. He’s already begun to make his mark as a musician in Toronto.
In the spring of 2025, he won the Canadian Opera Company bass trombone audition, and has been performing as bass trombonist for the Canadian Opera Company orchestra since the fall of 2025. He also recently auditioned for the Bass Trombone position with the National Ballet of Canada orchestra, and has been accepted for a trial position.
Shin began his studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and National University of Singapore, followed by the New England Conservatory of Music, before landing at the Glenn Gould School. He spent the summer of 2025 in Sapporo Japan performing at the Pacific Music Festival.
Constance Prost: The Interview
Why choose the trombone?
“It’s a very interesting story, actually,” says Prost. “I grew up in Ottawa, and at the age of eight in grade three, we had to make a decision on what instrument to choose.”
Constance wanted to choose alto sax because she had the ambition of playing solos in a jazz ensemble. But, a teacher gave her a tip — if she picked trombone, she could play in the senior band right away.
Senior band aside, it was obviously a good choice.
“I’ve stuck with it.”
The Gilberto Gagliardi Trombone Competition
The Gilberto Gagliardi Trombone Competition was launched in 1973, initially under the name ITA Solo Competition, and now named after Brazilian trombonist Gilberto Gagliardi. It’s a competition for solo tenor trombone players age 18 and under. Constance won First Prize in the summer of 2025.
“It was a great experience,” she says. The initial step required her to submit a preliminary video which she prepared with the help of her teacher at the Glenn Gould School, and fellow trombonist, Gordon Wolfe.
“They select three finalists,” she explained. “Luckily last summer it was in London, Ontario.”
It meant Prost could attend the International Trombone Festival, and play in the final round. The piece all the finalists were required to play was the Grand Solo by Hedwige Chrétien. “It was a piece I had never heard of before.” The work is used for competitions, but is not regularly programmed repertoire. “I only stumbled upon one person who had heard it.”
The win was yet another confirmation that she is on the right path.
The Beauty Of The Trombone: Repertoire
“I always tell people when I talk about the trombone that it’s just the best instrument out there,” Constance says. “It has a rich sound, it can do as much quiet as it can do loud.”
She notes that its colour is unique among the brass section. It’s been her instrument for 12 years now.
“The solo repertoire is limited,” she acknowledges, “but you learn to make the best of it. And, it’s not as limited as you think.”
Transposition is also an option, and in fact two of the pieces she’s playing at the recital were written for other instruments. “I think it’s interesting to change instruments,” she says. “I’ll be playing two solo pieces — both of them were not written for trombone.”
That includes Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2, BWV 1008. “I just wanted to play it.” It’s a piece that’s been on her list for some time, but she wasn’t able to play it to her own satisfaction until recently. “I remember there’s always this part that was low, and back then, my low register wasn’t as good as it is now,” she explains. “This year, my teacher really wanted me to play a cello suite. It brings a different challenge to playing trombone.”
She points out that breath control is not an issue cellists have to deal with. “That’s one of the big challenges in the Bach Cello Suites.” Trombonists have to carefully consider phrasing in order to find the places to take the breaths they need.
It’s a challenge she’s excited to take on. “I’m very happy that he insisted. Getting to hear the cello recordings, but also hearing the trombonists that play it, it’s such a beautiful work. It sounds great on trombone.”
She’s also performing Nocturno, Op. 7 by Franz Strauss, originally composed for the horn. But, still written with a brass instrument in mind.
“This one is closer,” Constance explains. “There are some differences in trying to convey the colour of the horn while playing the trombone.”
She first came upon the piece and began to play it during the summer of 2025, with time on her hands after the competition, but before school began. “I was listening to James Markey’s album, and the first piece I came up with was the Nocturno.”
It became the track she had on repeat anytime she was in the car.
“I put it on myself to transcribe the part,” she says. “It’s a piece that I do enjoy quite a bit.”
Prost is adding the movement of another piece to her performance that will come as a surprise for Wolfe, her teacher. It’s one of the movements of a concerto by the late Canadian musician Ian Walter McDougall, who passed away in January 2026. Famous for his work in the jazz world, he taught Wolfe at university. She’ll be playing the second movement, titled Guardian, from McDougall’s Concertino for Trombone with Piano accompaniment, “Devil or Angel?”
“This piece, this movement, my teacher doesn’t know about it. I’m playing that movement as a surprise for my teacher.” He’ll find out a few days before the St. Thomas recital, Prost shares.
“It’s very lyrical,” she says. Prost describes it as having jazzier elements, including glissandos, and both harmonies and dissonances, but within the context of a classical work.
Also on the program are duets she’ll perform with bass trombonist Shin Tanaka.
“I’m very excited to be playing with Shin Tanaka,” she says. “We’re doing one piece, it’s a duet from Le Nozze di Figaro.” As she relates, she and Tanaka were playing duets on a daily basis during 2025 as part of an Instagram challenge.
“And finally, there’s a piece — I think this is my absolute favourite piece of the program
— by Keiko Takashima: Hear the spring calling.” The work is composed for two trombones and piano.
“The piece is meant to evoke the nature in Japan,” she says. “There’s three movements: Dawn, Sea Breeze, and Sakura. It’s just such a beautiful piece, I can’t really put it into words.”
She notes that while, naturally, the spotlight is on the trombonists, there are beautiful piano parts as well. The piano part will be played by Colin Chang, also a GGS student.
“I’m very happy that Colin agreed to accompany me for some of the solos, and with Shin for this absolutely brilliant piece.”
Trombone Virtuosos: Concert Details
Trombone Virtuosos takes place on March 28 at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church (383 Huron Street), with tickets available on a pay-what-you-wish basis.
Proceeds from Friends of Music concerts support both the artists and St. Thomas’s free music education program for children in grades 2 to 12.
- Find tickets and show details [HERE].
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