In fifth grade, when her parents asked if she wanted to do band or choir, Hana Beloglavec, current professor of trombone at the University, said band. When they asked if she wanted to play clarinet or tuba, she said trombone.
“Sometimes, you get stuck with something that you choose at a very young age before you know any better. But I’m glad I picked it,” Beloglavec said.
When she was nine months old, Beloglavec moved with her family from Slovenia to the United States. They moved around the Ohio suburbs before finally settling down in Michigan.
Beloglavec earned her musical arts doctorate from Northwestern University, her master’s in music from Yale and her bachelor’s in music from Western Michigan University.
This is Beloglavec’s first year teaching at the University. Previously, she taught trombone at a small school in Texas.
“There aren’t that many job openings for a trombone professor at any given time, so you kind [of] have to go where there are jobs,” Beloglavec said.
Handsome Dan’s Trombone Quartet is made up of Beloglavec, Timothy Hilgert, Benjamin Firer and Jeffrey Arredondo. Its inception occurred during the members’ time together at Yale. Last month, they performed at the University in the School of Music’s recital hall. While in town, the other members of Handsome Dan’s Trombone Quartet taught trombone students in University classes.
“It took a lot of planning, and we all sent out our schedules, and we were like ‘Who’s available these weeks?’ and ‘Who’s available then?’” Beloglavec said. “So then they got tickets to fly here, and I put them up in my apartment. We rehearsed a bunch. I’ve never really done something like that before, but it was really fun.”
The SOM recital hall is a small venue and can only seat 250 audience members.
“I did go to one of the football games in the fall, and I thought, ‘Wow, if we could get ten percent of the people here into a concert, that would be amazing,’” Beloglavec said. “We probably wouldn’t have the space for them. But I don’t think that means that people are disinterested in music. I just think that anywhere you go, people will be interested in many different things.”