Donald Yaxley

[KWL]

I see Harper Byrne has won the 2023 ITA Donald Yaxley bass trombone competition. Congratulations to her.

Having been out of touch with the bass trombone world for over 40 years, I have no idea who Donald Yaxley is/was. On line searching comes up with many, many hits on winners of the award, going back to the ‘80s, and a couple concerning a Yaxley mouthpiece (including just one hit here).

I expected the ITA website to have the information- “This is the award and this is who it is named for” - but I was unable to find it.

Can anyone fill me in on Donald Yaxley?

[SGH]

I found him in 1961 Stetson university symphony as trombonist. No other details.

[SGH]

More found:
The Donald Yaxley Competition, named for an accomplished solo trombonist and former dean of the Stetson University School of Music, was originally organized through the University of Central Florida, and awarded its first scholarship in 1981.

[Kbiggs]

I seem to remember a thread devoted to this question on the old Trombone Forum. For the life of me, though, I can’t get a hit on the Wayback Machine. Searching the official ITA site had nothing, either. I’m not about to get my old ITA journals out of storage.

This could be due to operator error, though. Perhaps one of the moderators or admins can help.

[BassBoneFL]

Donald Yaxley was the long-time trombone teacher and dean of the music school at Stetson University in Deland FL. I have never met him, heard him play or know where he played but his name has achieved legendary status among Florida musicians and educators above 65-70yrs old. I believe he was good friends with many of the early founding circle of the ITA and when he passed, they named the bass trombone competition for him.