Around the Music Festival

Jay Friedman, the 85-year-old principal trombone of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will retire in September 2025. He is the longest-serving principal trombonist in the world’s top orchestras, having been appointed principal trombonist in 1964 by the orchestra’s seventh music director, Jean Martinon, with more than 60 years in the position.

Friedman studied at Yale University and then at Roosevelt University, where he majored in composition. He then spent four years with the Chicago Civic Orchestra and two years with the Florida Symphony Orchestra before joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal trombonist under its sixth music director, Fritz Reiner, and in 1969 was soloist in Bloch’s “Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra.”

Later, during the 8th Georg Solti era, he was soloist in Paul Creston’s Fantasy for Trombone and Orchestra in 1976, and in 1991 he gave the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Trombone Concerto, written for Friedman. During the 10th Riccardo Muti era, he led the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s “Bass Brass Concerto” in 2018.

He has also been active as a conductor since the 1990s, becoming Music Director of the Oak Park & River Forest Symphony Orchestra in 1995 and conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010. In addition to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he has conducted the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Italy and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.

PHOTO：jayfriedman.net