Dr. Sarah Paradis

Sarah Paradis joined the Boise State University Music Department as the Assistant Professor of Trombone and Euphonium in August 2014. Paradis earned her B.M. in Music Education from Ithaca College, her M.M. in Trombone Performance from Indiana University, and her D.M. in Brass Pedagogy from Indiana University. Her primary teachers include Peter Ellefson, Carl Lenthe, M. Dee Stewart, Per Brevig, and Hal Reynolds.

An avid orchestral trombonist, Paradis has been a member of the Richmond, Indiana Symphony, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and the Ohio Valley Symphony. In addition, she has played with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Boise Philharmonic, the Boise Baroque Orchestra, the Akron Symphony, the Lafayette Symphony, and the Owensboro Orchestra. Paradis has performed at the Eastern Trombone Workshop, the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, the International Trombone Festival, and the International Trumpet Guild Conference. She was a prizewinner in the Susan Slaughter Solo Competition in both 2010 and 2012, and was awarded the Trombone Fellowship at the Aspen Summer Music Festival in 2011.

An active chamber musician, Paradis tours, performs, gives master classes, and records with the Mirari Brass Quintet, Tromboteam!, and Bell(e) Collective. The Mirari Brass Quintet regularly performs for university, high school, and community audiences across the country, with recent residencies at Brigham Young University-Idaho, San Francisco State University, and the University of New Hampshire. When on tour with Mirari, Paradis often gives master classes about Yoga for Musicians, connecting the calm mindfulness of Yoga with the creative musical process. As a member of the trombone quintet Tromboteam!, Paradis has been instrumental in a large commission project which involved the addition of ten new trombone ensemble pieces to the repertoire. Tromboteam! released their commercial recording of these new commissions, Last Lap, in 2015. The female brass ensemble Bell(e) Collective also commissions new music for low brass and continually strives to empower young women to pursue musical excellence. Paradis can be heard on Spires, the debut album by the Mirari Brass Quintet and on Ursa, the solo album by Stephanie Frye, co-founder of Bell(e) Collective.

Paradis has been a brass instructor for the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, and is a former euphonium player in the ten-time World Champion Drum and Bugle Corps, The Cadets. Formerly, Paradis has held faculty positions at Bemidji State University and Ohio University.  At Boise State, Paradis teaches trombone and euphonium lessons, directs the trombone choir, coaches chamber music, and teaches brass techniques and ear training courses.