Dr. Austin Seybert is an educator, performer, and composer and is known as a versatile musician that can perform and compose in multiple mediums and styles. As a winner and finalist in several international trombone competitions, Austin is the only individual to be named a finalist for both American Trombone Workshop Classical Trombone and Jazz Trombone competitions in 2015 and 2018. Similarly, Austin was a member of the award-winning University of Illinois Jazz Trombone ensemble where they won four international jazz trombone ensemble competitions through the International Trombone Festival and the American Trombone Workshop.
As a composer, Austin has won a DownBeat Music Award for his arrangement of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, has had several compositions featured on albums, and is currently working on his marimba feature with wind ensemble called Come, Thou… Nearer to Thee, which will have its world premiere in the fall of 2023.
Other professional endeavors include playing lead trombone with the International Glenn Miller Orchestra, working as an educator at universities, and presenting clinics as a band and jazz educator, most recently as the jazz trombone Guest adjudicator and artist for the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, ID.
Austin is currently prepping for his album project for June 2023 which will feature all new works for trombone and piano, trombone ensemble, and mixed media for trombone and tuba. Another project that is set to be released through Qpress in 2023 is The Creative Listener: The Applied Studio, which is a publication that supports an educational platform for audition and improvisation that is co-authored with four university professors and improvisers.
Austin obtained his degrees from Marshall University in Music Education, The University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign in Jazz Trombone Performance, and The University of Iowa in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy. Austin currently serves as the Director of Bands and the Professor of Trombone at The University of Texas at Tyler in Tyler, TX.