prof. james m. tour

James M. Tour

T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering

255 Dell Butcher Hall | 713-348-6246 | [email protected]

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Feb. 6, 2024

Rice’s james tour named to national academy of engineering, professor honored for work on “novel forms of carbon”.

Rice University chemist James Tour was named to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional distinctions accorded “in recognition of distinguished contributions” to the field.

Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor, professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering and of computer science, was recognized for his research on the “synthesis, fabrication, properties, applications and commercialization of novel forms of carbon and their composites and derivatives.” “I am deeply grateful to my colleagues for putting me forward for this honor,” Tour said. “It’s wonderful to join the ranks of Rice engineers that bear this honor, and to see our work on carbon materials recognized. We think of the impact our research will have in the real world, and aim to put our findings in the context of current needs and challenges we face as a society.”

Tour’s research areas include organic synthesis, chemical biology, spectroscopy and imaging, and nanomaterials synthesis. His work has helped drive discovery and innovation in new materials synthesis through techniques such as flash Joule heating , laser-induced graphene, and single-molecule nanomachine synthesis for biomedical applications. “Rice University takes immense pride in the recognition bestowed upon Professor James Tour as a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering,” President Reginald DesRoches said. “Jim is one of those rare talents who can both conduct creative and groundbreaking fundamental research, while also developing technologies that are finding their way into the marketplace. Jim’s dedication to innovation and his profound impact on advancing nanotechnology exemplify the spirit of excellence that defines our institution. We congratulate Jim on this well-deserved honor and look forward to his continued leadership and inspiration within our community and beyond.”

Tour has a significant publication track record exploring sustainable methods to make carbon-, graphene- and silicon oxide-based materials with potential for use in nanoelectronics, photovoltaics, supercapacitors, lithium ion and lithium metal batteries, carbon dioxide capture, water splitting and purification and more. Applications stemming from this research could, at scale, enable new, more sustainable recycling, manufacturing and energy use practices and impact national security. Single-molecule nanomachines such as the molecular motors and molecular jackhammers developed by Tour and his team were proven effective against infectious bacteria , cancer cells and treatment-resistant fungi , showing the potential of a molecular mechanical approach in therapeutics. The Tour lab is also home to the world’s first nanocar with turning buckyball wheels.

“The breadth of Jim’s discoveries across the scientific disciplines, including chemistry and engineering, is truly remarkable,” said Amy Dittmar , the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “I’m pleased to see the National Academy of Engineering recognize him for his distinguished accomplishments, including over 800 research publications and more than 200 patents. His research is transforming medicine and the energy transition.” Informed by his research, Tour started more than a dozen companies in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to electronic memory and advanced materials that he says now have a collective value of nearly $2 billion. Three of the companies are publicly traded.

“This honor is incredibly well-deserved, and I am delighted for Jim,” said Thomas Killian , dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and a professor of physics and astronomy. “His contributions to chemistry are broad and profound, spanning from fundamental discoveries in carbon nanoscience to applications that address great societal challenges related to energy, the environment and human health. His success in translating his research into high-impact companies is remarkable, and he has also been a dedicated mentor to many graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.”

Tour is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including recognition as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Inventors, and as a recipient of the Feynman Prize in Experimental Nanotechnology, the NASA Space Act Award, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.

He is one of 114 new members and 21 international members in the NAE’s newly elected class of 2024. The new members will be formally inducted at the academy’s annual meeting Sept. 29.

Click here for the complete list. Tour joins 14 current Rice faculty who are members of the academy ⎯ Pedro Alvarez , Richard Baraniuk , Reginald DesRoches , Gene Frantz , Naomi Halas , Abbas Firoozabadi , Antonios Mikos , Ramamoorthy Ramesh , Rebecca Richards-Kortum , Pol Spanos , Moshe Vardi and Richard Tapia — along with emeritus Rice professors George Hirasaki and Ronald Nordgren .

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/02/230824_Dr.-Tour-Thumbnail-Pieces_Gustavo--cb40a926a64e7fb9.jpg CAPTION: James Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor and professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering . (Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University)

James M Tour Group: https://www.jmtour.com/

Department of Chemistry: https://chemistry.rice.edu/ Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: msne.rice.edu Wiess School of Natural Sciences: https://naturalsciences.rice.edu/

George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.ed u

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Synthetic Organic & Materials Chemist

Tour has over 725 publications and 140 patent families, an h-index of 150, and ~110,000 citations.

Awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Centenary Prize in 2020

...for innovations in materials chemistry with applications in medicine and nanotechnology, 2020 +140 Patent Families National Academy of Inventors, 2015

Scientist of the Year by R&D Magazine

He was named “Scientist of the Year” by  R&D Magazine , 2013.

Changing the world one atom at a time.

The value of a material is not in the atoms themselves; it is in how the atoms are arranged.

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T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering

Department of Chemistry

[email protected]

WEBSITE(S) | https://chemistry.rice.edu/

Student Project Titles List

Energy Efficient Self-Sterilizing Laser-Induced Graphene Air Filters

The Synthesis of Nitrile-substituted Molecular Machines for Use as Antimicrobials

Research Areas

Organic Synthesis; Chemical Biology; Spectroscopy & Imaging; Nanomaterial Synthesis

T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering

Department of Chemistry

O'Connor Building for Engineering and Science 211A | 713-348-6246 | [email protected]

WEBSITE(S) | Tour Group Rice | Google Scholar Citations

Research Summary

Tour’s scientific research areas include nanoelectronics, graphene electronics, silicon oxide electronics, carbon nanovectors for medical applications, green carbon research for enhanced oil recovery and environmentally friendly oil and gas extraction, graphene photovoltaics, carbon supercapacitors, lithium ion batteries, lithium metal batteries, CO2 capture, water splitting to H2 and O2, water purification, carbon nanotube and graphene synthetic modifications, graphene oxide, carbon composites, hydrogen storage on nanoengineered carbon scaffolds, and synthesis of single-molecule nanomachines which includes molecular motors and nanocars and nanomachines that can drill through cell membranes. He has also developed strategies for retarding chemical terrorist attacks. For pre-college education, Tour developed the NanoKids concept for K-12 education in nanoscale science, and also Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero science packages for elementary and middle school education: SciRave ( www.scirave.org ) which later expanded to a Stemscopes-based SciRave. The SciRave program has risen to be the #1 most widely adopted program in Texas to complement science instruction, and it is currently used by over 450 school districts and 40,000 teachers with over 1 million student downloads.

James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University, and postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999 where he is presently the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. Tour has about 650 research publications and over 200 patents, with an H-index = 129 and i10 index = 538 with total citations over 77,000 (Google Scholar). He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015. Tour was named among “The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today” by TheBestSchools.org in 2014; listed in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch.com in 2014; recipient of the Trotter Prize in “Information, Complexity and Inference” in 2014; and was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, June, 2014. Tour was named “Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine, 2013. He was awarded the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching, 2012, Rice University; won the ACS Nano Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society, 2012; was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, June, 2011; and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2009. Tour was ranked one of the Top 10 chemists in the world over the past decade, by a Thomson Reuters citations per publication index survey, 2009; won the Distinguished Alumni Award, Purdue University, 2009; and the Houston Technology Center’s Nanotechnology Award in 2009. He won the Feynman Prize in Experimental Nanotechnology in 2008, the NASA Space Act Award in 2008 for his development of carbon nanotube reinforced elastomers, and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society for his achievements in organic chemistry in 2007. Tour was the recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 2007. He also won the Small Times magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2006, the Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Innovator Award in 2006, the Alan Berman Research Publication Award, Department of the Navy in 2006, the Southern Chemist of the Year Award from the American Chemical Society in 2005, and The Honda Innovation Award for Nanocars in 2005. Tour’s paper on Nanocars was the most highly accessed journal article of all American Chemical Society articles in 2005, and it was listed by LiveScience as the second most influential paper in all of science in 2005. Tour has won several other national awards including the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry.

Research Areas

Organic Synthesis; Chemical Biology; Spectroscopy & Imaging; Nanomaterial Synthesis

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• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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Moscow Metro Tour

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Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

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Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering

713-348-6246 | [email protected]

Research Summary

Tour’s scientific research areas include nanoelectronics, graphene electronics, silicon oxide electronics, carbon nanovectors for medical applications, green carbon research for enhanced oil recovery and environmentally friendly oil and gas extraction, graphene photovoltaics, carbon supercapacitors, lithium ion batteries, lithium metal batteries, CO2 capture, water splitting to H2 and O2, water purification, carbon nanotube and graphene synthetic modifications, graphene oxide, carbon composites, hydrogen storage on nanoengineered carbon scaffolds, and synthesis of single-molecule nanomachines which includes molecular motors and nanocars and nanomachines that can drill through cell membranes. He has also developed strategies for retarding chemical terrorist attacks. For pre-college education, Tour developed the NanoKids concept for K-12 education in nanoscale science, and also Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero science packages for elementary and middle school education: SciRave ( www.scirave.org ) which later expanded to a Stemscopes-based SciRave. The SciRave program has risen to be the #1 most widely adopted program in Texas to complement science instruction, and it is currently used by over 450 school districts and 40,000 teachers with over 1 million student downloads.

Research Areas

Organic Synthesis; Chemical Biology; Spectroscopy & Imaging; Nanomaterial Synthesis

James M. Tour, a synthetic organic chemist, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University, and postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999 where he is presently the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. Tour has about 650 research publications and over 200 patents, with an H-index = 129 and i10 index = 538 with total citations over 77,000 (Google Scholar). He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015. Tour was named among “The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today” by TheBestSchools.org in 2014; listed in “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch.com in 2014; recipient of the Trotter Prize in “Information, Complexity and Inference” in 2014; and was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, June, 2014. Tour was named “Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine, 2013. He was awarded the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching, 2012, Rice University; won the ACS Nano Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society, 2012; was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, June, 2011; and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2009. Tour was ranked one of the Top 10 chemists in the world over the past decade, by a Thomson Reuters citations per publication index survey, 2009; won the Distinguished Alumni Award, Purdue University, 2009; and the Houston Technology Center’s Nanotechnology Award in 2009. He won the Feynman Prize in Experimental Nanotechnology in 2008, the NASA Space Act Award in 2008 for his development of carbon nanotube reinforced elastomers, and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society for his achievements in organic chemistry in 2007. Tour was the recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 2007. He also won the Small Times magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2006, the Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Innovator Award in 2006, the Alan Berman Research Publication Award, Department of the Navy in 2006, the Southern Chemist of the Year Award from the American Chemical Society in 2005, and The Honda Innovation Award for Nanocars in 2005. Tour’s paper on Nanocars was the most highly accessed journal article of all American Chemical Society articles in 2005, and it was listed by LiveScience as the second most influential paper in all of science in 2005. Tour has won several other national awards including the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in Polymer Chemistry.

Man up for parole more than 2 decades after Dartmouth professor stabbing deaths

CONCORD, N.H. — A man who has served more than half of his life in prison for his role in the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors as part of a plan to rob and kill people before fleeing overseas is getting his first chance at parole.

James Parker was 16 when he was part of a conspiracy with his best friend that resulted in the deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire. Now just shy of 40, he’s scheduled for a state parole board hearing Thursday, years after pleading guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder.

Parker has served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.

“I’m sorry,” Parker said, crying at a brief hearing in 2002. “There’s not much more I can say than that. I’m just really sorry.”

Years later, he’s earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in prison and created paintings that are displayed in the building, according to a 2018 motion filed by his lawyer. He’s been a part of theatrical, musical and sports activities and has helped develop inmate education guides. Parker received earned time credits toward his sentence and he lives in a transitional housing unit, which is usually the final placement for a resident prior to their release from incarceration, said a Department of Corrections spokesperson.

Parker sought a sentence reduction in 2018 , his accomplishments praised by corrections staff at the time. Under the law, he was eligible to do so because he had served two-thirds of his term, but he withdrew the petition in 2019 after the Zantops’ two daughters objected.

“The Zantops were not killed in self-defense or in the heat of the moment,” prosecutors said in the objection. “Instead, their deaths were the result of months of detailed criminal planning that included the purchase of weapons and failed attempts to rob and kill others.”

Parker’s lawyer, Cathy Green, said Parker remains deeply sorry for his actions.

“He has spent his time in prison very constructively with dedication not only to his own rehabilitation, but to making it a better place for others,” she said in a recent statement.

Parker and then-17-year-old Robert Tulloch, bored with their lives in nearby Chelsea, Vermont, wanted to move to Australia and estimated they needed $10,000 for the trip. They eventually decided they would knock on homeowners’ doors under the pretext of conducting a survey on environmental issues, then tie up their victims and steal their credit cards and ATM information. They planned to make their captives provide the pin numbers before killing them.

For about six months, they had tried to talk their way into four other homes in Vermont and New Hampshire, but were turned away or found no one home.

Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors, said they picked the Zantop house the morning of Jan. 27, 2001, because it looked expensive and it was surrounded by trees. Half Zantop let them in. Parker told police the interview lasted at least 10 minutes before Tulloch stabbed Zantop and then directed him to attack Susanne Zantop. Tulloch also stabbed her.

They fled with Half Zantop’s wallet, which contained about $340 and a list of numbers, but then realized they had left sheaths to their knives at the house. They attempted to go back but saw a police officer was in the driveway. Fingerprints on a knife sheath and a bloody boot print linked them to the crime, but after being questioned by police, they fled and hitchhiked west. They were arrested at an Indiana truck stop weeks later.

In his interviews with police, Parker said he and Tulloch developed a different sense of morality.

“We thought, you know, what everybody was doing was silly. Like going to school and like wasting half your life with education that you’re not ever going to use,” he had said at the time.

Parker agreed to testify against Tulloch, who had planned to use an insanity defense at his trial. But Tulloch abruptly changed his mind and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He got the mandatory sentence of life without parole.

Now 40, Tulloch is scheduled for a resentencing hearing in June. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 2012 that it is unconstitutional to sentence juvenile offenders to mandatory life imprisonment without parole and the state Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that Tulloch and four other men who received such sentences for murders they committed as teenagers should be re-sentenced.

Susanne Zantop, 55 and Half Zantop, 62, were born in Germany. She was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department. He taught Earth sciences. Respected in their fields, the professors were beloved by colleagues and students, many of whom had an open invitation to their home a few miles from the Dartmouth campus.

A campus memorial garden in their name has trees, perennial flowers and ferns. The college also holds an annual Zantop lecture in Susanne Zantop’s honor on comparative literature.

“There’s no statement in the entire world that can capture the absolute horror, disbelief, pain, sadness and anger that my sister, my family and friends have experienced since the murders,” said Veronika Zantop, a daughter of the victims and a psychiatrist who lives in the Seattle area, had said before Tulloch’s sentencing.

“Rather than focus on the inhumanity and monstrosity and the sheer stupidity of their brutal and senseless deaths, I try to console myself by trying to perpetuate the essence of my parents.”

She did not respond to requests seeking comment before Parker’s parole board hearing.

Celebrating 20 Years, Trombone Choir Presents Spring Concert At A&M United Methodist Church

Dr. David Wilborn ’s affection for the bass trombone goes back to his high school years in Austin. He was a freshman who played tenor trombone, but his instrument was damaged by students horsing around in the band hall.

His band directors had just acquired a new bass trombone and suggested he try it.

“I said, ‘OK, sure,’” he recalls. “There was never a plan for me to play bass trombone. But I just loved the instrument. It was new, and it was big compared to what I was playing before. There were method books that were created just for that instrument. I was fascinated with it.”

The bass trombone became the instrument of choice for Wilborn, associate professor in the  Texas A&M School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts . His love for the instrument continued throughout his career in academia, and in 2004, he created the  Texas A&M Trombone Choir .

The choir celebrates its 20 th  anniversary this year, and performs its spring concert at A&M United Methodist Church on Thursday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. For the first time, Wilborn will get an assist in leading the choir with the addition of  Dr. James Van Zandt , Texas A&M’s director of orchestras who is also a conductor and trombone player who played in the U.S. Air Force Band.

Though the choir’s early years were lean, it started to grow thanks to active student officers who helped to recruit players and developed connections with the community, Wilborn said. Soon people were referring students to Wilborn, and he still hears from band directors across Texas letting him know their students are coming to Texas A&M.

The choir is now bigger than ever, with 25 student members.

“It’s very impressive,” Wilborn said of the history and growth. “It’s extremely impressive here at Texas A&M because none of these students are music majors. I have friends that are jealous that I have not only this amount of talent, but I have these numbers. I’m very lucky, very fortunate that I have this available to me.”

The trombone’s versatility lends itself to such ensembles, he said, as a tenor-voiced instrument that has the flexibility to expand in range.

“It can go and play bass lines, and players that are really good can also expand up into the alto range,” he said. “So you have three vocal ranges that you can cover with the trombone. By comparison, the trumpet is a soprano-voiced instrument. There’s a limited range in what they can hit in an ensemble. With trombone, you do have that full range. It has always historically been valued for its tenor-vocal expressive ability.”

The choir practices every Tuesday night in the Liberal Arts and Arts and Humanities Building. Wilborn said he’s been pleased to see the group socialize and organize events and gatherings, “because everybody enjoys being with each other.”

The concert will feature an original composition by Wilborn, and he said he draws from inspiration in writing these pieces. Examples from previous years include the San Gabriel River and a trip to South America. This time around, it was perhaps a more unlikely source of inspiration: an Aspercreme commercial.

The clip featured two women dressed as gladiators in the midst of combat, until one screams in pain. The reason is not a battle wound, but arthritis. But it sparked a dive into history for Wilborn, and he found stories of female gladiators and their struggles to get respect. Some were “just a spectacle in the eyes of men,” he said, but they were often skilled and crafty in combat. He built a story out of such a warrior — a gladiatrix — about to go into battle.

“So it starts with this meditative moment,” he said. “Then eventually, she’s ready to go out there and fight. And so the music builds, and all of a sudden she’s out there fighting. So you hear this combative music that is clearly relatable to ancient Rome. She battles and she’s fighting, and she goes back into this reflective moment for a brief pause. But ultimately the combative music comes back to end it, and she’s victorious.”

The Trombone Choir’s 20 th  year includes an upcoming performance at the  International Trombone Festival 2024  at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Members of Maroon Steel will join the choir in the performance June 1 at 5 p.m. in Van Cliburn Hall.

The Trombone Choir also performs with the Small Ensembles — coached by Wilborn and  Virginia Figueiredo , instructional associate professor in music — on April 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 1001 Woodcreek Drive in College Station. The concert will also feature ensembles including string quartet; piano and string trio; solo trombone and piano; and a saxophone trio.

Media contact: Rob Clark, [email protected]

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