Tonight Show Music Director Doc Severinsen performs with Symphony

Jan 24, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

SPOKANE: Trumpeter and Conductor Doc Severinsen will perform Saturday with the Spokane Symphony at the Spokane Opera House at 8 p.m.
Doc is one of today's paramount instrumentalists. This season, he will conduct and perform more than 90 concerts in 40 cities from Palm Springs, California to Stony Brook, New York. He travels the country performing with symphonic orchestras, jazz and big band concerts, making recordings and commercials, plus designing and manufacturing trumpets.
Doc is best known as the Grammy Award-winning Music Director of The Tonight Show. He has established a career with a broad spectrum of experience. He performs concerts in a wide range of musical style and joins classical and pop music groups. He has also guest performs with a huge number of symphony orchestras across the country. He is Principal Pops Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony
Morihiko Nakahara will share the podium with Severinsen and the Spokane Symphony, presenting a broad range of pops favorites including arrangements by his former assistant conductor at The Tonight Show Tommy Newsom.
He has recorded more than 30 albums, from big band to jazz fusion to classical. His recent recordings include Unforgettably Doc with the Cincinnati Pops on the Telarc label and the Grammy-nominated Once More with Feeling on the Amherst label. He received a Grammy Award in 1987 for "Best Jazz Instrumental Performance--Big Band" for his recording, Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band--Volume I.
Severinsen's successes date back to his hometown of Arlington, Oregon. He was nicknamed "Little Doc after his dentist father, Dr. Carl Severinsen. Little Doc had originally wanted to play the trombone, but the senior Severinsen, a gifted amateur violinist, urged him to study the violin. The younger Severinsen insisted on the trombone, but had to settle for the only horn available in their small community--a trumpet. One week later, with the help of his father and a book of instructions, the seven-year-old was so good that he was invited to join the high school band. At the age of 12, Little Doc won the Music Educators National Contest and, while still in high school, was hired to go on the road with the famous Ted Fio Rito Orchestra.
After completing his education and serving in the Army, Severinsen toured with the Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Charlie Barnet bands. He settled in New York as an NBC staff musician in 1949, joining "The Tonight Show" Orchestra in 1962, becoming Music Director in 1967.
The concert is underwritten by Lukins and Annis, LeMaster and Daniels and Latah Creek Winery.

Tickets range from $17 to $38 and are available Monday through Friday from 9:30-5:00 p.m. at the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office at 818 West Riverside Avenue or by calling (509) 624-1200. Tickets are also available on weekends and evenings, with a service charge, at www.spokanesymphony.org or through TicketsWest at 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT.