Women’s History Month Profile: Jan Kagarice

March feature! Each week I will profile a different woman or women in music who are particular heroes or inspiration for me.

This week, please welcome to the stage

MS JAN KAGARICE!

The goal of music is communication, not perfection.

Musician, scholar, pedagogue, force of nature, Jan Kagarice is senior lecturer of trombone at the University of North Texas. She’s taught and lectured all over the world, and was a founding member of internationally acclaimed trombone quartet PRISMA.

Jan’s teaching method focuses on methods garnered from greats like Arnold Jacobs and John Marcellus. She studies nearly everything having to do with how we learn to create a comprehensive approach. It’s all about the music, and what we say with our unique skills. 99.9% of what I tell my students comes from her. 100% of who I am as a performer is thanks to my time studying with her. It’s hard to put into words what my time at UNT meant to me, because I’m still processing so much of it. Needless to say, I wouldn’t still be working as a trombone player without the things I learned from Jan.

In addition to instilling these traits in her students, she also works with musicians affected by focal dystonia, a disorder that in the past has prevented many brass musicians from continuing their careers.

While a first-class performer herself, there’s not a lot to be found of her own recordings on the internet. What we do have, though, is a long and continuing legacy of her students whose performances speak to her enormous influence. Please enjoy my favorite trombone quartet, Maniacal 4, performing a piece written for Ms Kagarice, “Janet”.