Our Beginnings

Beginnings

Trinity County musicians Dan Zook and Jeff Morris met in 5th grade at Weaverville Elementary School and each had the opportunity to choose a musical instrument. Dan chose the saxophone, Jeff (who was already taking piano lessons) chose trumpet. Under the passionate tutelage of then Weaverville Elementary music teacher Jim Byker, and with early influences of Frank Zappa, Supertramp, classical composers and Steely Dan recordings from parents’ record collections, the duo, along with their core classmates, locked onto music performance and never let go.

 

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Fast forward 40+ years and decades of mutual, and separate, world wide adventures, and the two have landed back in rural Trinity County to form a non-profit to support music programs for youth in the local schools and the community generally.

 

Among the hundreds of musically adept students who have graduated from schools in Trinity County is Tomm Roland (pictured above).

“Tomm is the Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska, Omaha where he is the Online Learning Coordinator for the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media and regularly teaches courses on world music, rock history, and The Beatles.

Tomm has performed in a variety of musical settings throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. He has given clinics and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and has been selected to perform several national conferences including multiple performances at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention.”

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The next major generation of musicians from Trinity County included Taylor and Danyel Aglipay, who are the instructors currently running the programs we support. The clip below is courtesy of Trinity Forward.