Jeffrey Gray joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 as bass trombonist. He has previously held the same position with the Grant Park Orchestra of Chicago from 2003-2014, and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2011. Born and raised in Shelby, Ohio, Mr. Gray received a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Bowling Green State University. He went on to pursue graduate study at The Juilliard School. His teachers include Paul Hunt, Dennis Smith, Randy Hawes, Don Harwood, Joe Alessi and Blair Bollinger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Gray has performed with the country\u2019s top symphonic orchestras including those in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, Alabama and Toledo. He can be heard on multiple recordings with many of those orchestras, as well as the Juilliard Wind Ensemble. He was also a member of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2000, Mr. Gray was the winner of two international competitions; the Lewis Van Haney Philharmonic Prize and the Donald Yaxley Solo Competition, both sponsored by the International Trombone Association.\u00a0 He is one of only a few trombonists to win both international competitions for bass trombone in the same year. \u00a0He was a featured soloist at the 2000 International Trombone Festival in Utrecht, The Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, Mr. Gray made his critically acclaimed solo debut with the RPO, performing Eric Ewazen\u2019s Concerto for Bass Trombone<\/em>, with maestro Gunther Herbig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In demand as a teacher, Mr. Gray maintains active studios and ensembles at the Eastman Community Music School, Ithaca College and Roberts Wesleyan College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeff and his wife Julie live with their three children in suburban Rochester. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":8616,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"faculty-category":[],"faculty-instrument":[161],"faculty-department":[149],"faculty-ensemble":[],"faculty-type":[150],"faculty-tag":[182],"class_list":["post-20791","ecms-faculty","type-ecms-faculty","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","faculty-instrument-trombone","faculty-department-woodwinds-brass-percussion-faculty","faculty-type-instructor","faculty-tag-rpo-member"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/files\/Jeff-Gray-e1726163713399.jpeg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/author\/kristijan-bogdanovski\/","display_name":"Kristijan Bogdanovski"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 11 months ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 23, 2025","modified":"Updated on October 10, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 23, 2025 10:05 AM","modified":"Updated on October 10, 2025 11:27 AM"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"faculty-category":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"faculty-category","name":"ECMS Faculty Categories"},"faculty-instrument":{"linked":["Trombone<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Trombone<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-instrument","name":"ECMS Faculty Instruments"},"faculty-department":{"linked":["Woodwinds, Brass & Percussion<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Woodwinds, Brass & Percussion<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-department","name":"ECMS Faculty Departments"},"faculty-ensemble":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"faculty-ensemble","name":"ECMS Faculty Ensembles"},"faculty-type":{"linked":["Instructor<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Instructor<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-type","name":"ECMS Faculty Types"},"faculty-tag":{"linked":["RPO Member<\/a>"],"unlinked":["RPO Member<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-tag","name":"ECMS Faculty Tags"}},"series_order":"","mfb_rest_fields":["title","author","featured_img","coauthors","author_meta","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","tax_additional","series_order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/20791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ecms-faculty"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/20791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33664,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/20791\/revisions\/33664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"faculty-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-category?post=20791"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-instrument","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-instrument?post=20791"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-department?post=20791"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-ensemble","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-ensemble?post=20791"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-type?post=20791"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-tag?post=20791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}