About Mr. Ronning
In 1995, I began my career teaching band in Tacoma, and have been working at Mason since 2002. I grew up in Lake Oswego, which is a town close to Portland (OR) where I started taking band in the fifth grade. I chose the trumpet because it looked cool and easy to play because it only had three buttons. Also, the saxophone section was full. Over the years, I learned other instruments too- mostly drums and piano- but trumpet really became important to me once I got into high school. I played in the Oregon All-State band and jazz band, PLU's Northwest High School Honor Band, and was one of 6 trumpeters selected for MENC's National High School Honors Orchestra in Washington D.C. where we performed at the Kennedy Center. That was my introduction to the symphony orchestra, and our performance of Respighi's the Pines of Rome is something I'll never forget. After that, I started listening to orchestral music in addition to jazz and rock.
I came to Tacoma when I went to college at Pacific Lutheran University. College was great- I got to play trumpet a lot and took lessons from Richard Pressley, who is one of the trumpet players for Seattle Symphony. PLU was ideal for me because of it's teachers and because I could play in lots of different ensembles. And though I did a lot of playing, I went to college so I could study to become a teacher. In fact, it was my junior year high school that I decided I wanted to teach band.
What I like most about my job is how fun it is to see kids grow musically and socially over the years. To see kids go from wanting to play Old MacDonald on-a-saxophone-because-it's-shiny to studying jazz improv and composing saxophone quartets is really exciting. Mason is a special place and I feel priveledged to work among such great students and teachers. It makes my day when we all come together to create beautiful and cool sounding music, reaching new levels of musical performance and appreciation.
Although I love teaching, I still play trumpet a lot. Over the years, I've played in several different kinds of groups from symphony orchestras to jazz combos. Right now, I play in Brass Unlimited, which is a chamber brass quartet, and with a top 40 dance party band called The High Rollers. And when I'm not playing trumpet? I'm playing with my kids, Julie and Chris, or I'm out fishing, or playing on the wii or xbox360.