Dr. Sarah Paradis

Sarah Paradis is the Associate Professor of Trombone and Euphonium at Boise State University. Paradis earned her D.M. in Brass Pedagogy from Indiana University, M.M. in Trombone Performance from Indiana University, and B.M. in Music Education from Ithaca College. 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 Sun Valley Music Festival and the Boise Philharmonic. She is a current member of the Opera Idaho Orchestra and the McCall Mountain Symphony. Paradis has performed at the American 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 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 and Tromboteam!. Mirari regularly performs for university, high school, and community audiences nationwide, with recent residencies at the University of Utah, the University of Iowa, and the Ohio State University. 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 that involved the addition of ten new trombone ensemble pieces to the repertoire. Tromboteam! released their commercial recording of these new commissions on their debut album Last Lap. Paradis can also be heard performing brass quintet chamber music on Mirari’s two albums, Spires and Renewed, Reused, Recycled. Paradis’s solo album will be released in late 2024. Locally, you can hear Paradis leading her polka band, the Boise Polka Projekt, during the Oktoberfest season.

Paradis has been a brass instructor for the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps and the Sacramento Mandarins 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. She also coordinates the graduate music program.

Paradis is a Shires performing artist. For more information and resources, please visit Sarah Paradis’s website.