Musicians

Violin
· Brian Lewis, Concertmaster
· Brinna Brinkerhoff
· Aloysia Friedmann
· Jonathan Godfrey
· Andrés González
· Rachel Jordan
· Rasa Kalesnykaite
· Kana Kimura
· Maxine Kuo
· Tammy Linn
· Deborah Tien Price
· Oleg Sulyga
· Amy Thiaville

Viola
· Matt Dane
· Suzanne LeFevre
· Tawnya Popoff
· Lorento Golofeev

Cello
· Richard Belcher
· Julia Cleworth
· Erika Johnson
· Shino Hayashi

Bass
· Sandor Ostlund
· Erik Gronfor

Harp
· Mollie Marcuson

Flute/Piccolo
· Christina Jennings
· Jennifer Keeney

Oboe
· Alecia Lawyer

Clarinet
· Nathan Williams
· Maiko Sasaki

Bassoon
· Kristin Wolfe Jensen
· Daniel Chrisman

Horn
· Danielle Kuhlmann
· Gavin Reed

Trumpet
· Jens Lindemann
· Dan Shipman
· George Chase

Trombone
· Brian Logan

Percussion
· Matthew McClung

Piano
· Kimi Kawashima
· Rodney Waters

Dan Shipman Instrument: Trumpet Originally from: Born in Wichita Falls, TX; raised in Burkburnett, TX, Lovington, NM, and Midland, TX (father worked for Mobil Oil and was transferred two times). Now reside in: Sugar Land, TX Age: 180 in some obscure animal years

Birthday: November 22... John F. Kennedy's assassination; St. Cecilia's Day, the patron saint of music.

How did you get started? Before fifth grade started, my mom took me to the band director in Lovington, NM, and he had me "buzz" my lips into a trombone mouthpiece (mpc) and a trumpet mpc in the band hall while the two of them talked for a few minutes in his office. Afterwards, he asked which felt better and I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I guess this one," indicating the trumpet mpc. For the follow-up, we had to fill in an alternate choice on the instrument preference sheet, where I put down drums. When my parents went to the local music store, there was only one trumpet left, so I see the whole sequence as coming very close to being first a trombonist, and second a percussionist, instead of a trumpeter.

What do you do when you’re not playing with ROCO? I teach trumpet privately at Houston Baptist University and at my home, play with Theatre Under The Stars and some extra with the other large arts organizations in Houston, solo trumpet for wedding ceremonies, play every Sunday morning at First Presbyterian Church of Houston in their 8:15am service in a jazz quintet called First Praise!, freelance in other settings, dabble some in music arranging, and I serve as a musician contractor for several Houston area churches and civic organizations.

What are you listening to on your iPod? Chase Music on Pandora on my iPhone: presently Chase Ennea / Pure Music (the late Bill Chase, high-note jazz/rock trumpeter of the early 1970s); New York Philharmonic on Pandora on my iPhone: presently Handel, Telemann, et al.

Personal info: Married to soprano Leigh Shipman. Sherah Lynne is 13; Micah Daniel (boy) is 11. No pets due to potential allergies my wife's voice students may have. However, I grew up on the outskirts of Lovington, NM, and Midland, TX, with two horses named Sunny and Molly (my dad was a lifetime member of the National Rodeo Assn), a bird dog named Spot, and cat named Smokey coined by my dad because of the cat's charcoal grey color.

Question you're asked most often: Two frequent questions: 1. Do you play in the Houston Symphony? Answer: No (but I certainly take this as a compliment). 2. What is the key of your small trumpet? Answer: It is a Scherzer (German-made) rotary-valve piccolo trumpet with two tunable leadpipes in A and in B-flat.

Interests outside music: Fitness/health. Trained for five years in Taekwondo until May 2009 when I sustained a thumb injury during sparring in a tournament and decided at that point not to continue, only a few months away from a black belt. My son was able to make more classes and achieved a 2nd-degree black belt...and I'm jealous.

Links: I'm still resisting the urge to join the big online time-wasters, which reminds me of a joke I heard recently on late-night TV: "In the year 3000, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook will form a huge conglomerate of an online time-waster, which will be called...
"You-Twit-Face!"

Education: Four degrees in music: a Bachelors in Music Education and a Bachelors in Applied Trumpet; a Masters in Applied Trumpet; and a doctorate (DMA = Doctor of Musical Arts) in Applied Trumpet, all from the University of Houston, with one year of doctoral study at Northwestern University.

Bio: Dan Shipman graduated with honors from the University of Houston where he earned BA degrees in Music Education and Applied Trumpet. During that time, he won the UH Outstanding Soloist Award. He also received a MA in Applied Trumpet from UH and completed post-graduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He received his Doctorate in Trumpet Performance from UH in December 2003.

Dr. Shipman has performed in a wide range of musical settings: Theatre Under The Stars, Houston Bach Vespers, Ambient Brass, First Presbyterian Church’s First Praise!, and frequently as a soloist. He has also performed with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet, Houston Masterworks Chorus, Texas Opera Theatre, Opera in the Heights, Midland-Odessa Symphony, Lake Charles Symphony, and the National Tour production of Les Misérables. Other professional activities include contracting musicians for church music ministries and civic events, music copying and arranging, and Instructor of Trumpet and Brass Studies at Houston Baptist University.