National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammys) "Most Valuable Player Award" nominee Loren Marsteller graduated from the University of Southern California (B.M.) with a major in trombone performance. He joined "The President's Own" United States Marine Corps Band in Washington, D.C. on euphonium and was a frequent soloist during his tour. He also received his Master's of Music degree (M.M.) from Catholic University of America while in the Corps. After receiving an honorable discharge, he moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to become principal trombone with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for two seasons. Later moving to Vancouver, B.C. to free-lance, he accepted an appointment to the faculty of the University of British Columbia as director of bands and head of the brass department.
Since returning to Los Angeles in 1976, Mr. Marsteller has been an active free-lance player in both live performance and studio engagements. He has played principal trombone with every major regional orchestra in Southern California and has been spotlighted with Roger Wagner and the Los Angeles Master Chorale playing the "Tuba Mirum" solo in Mozart's Requiem, with the C.O.T.A. Symphony in the "Funeral Oration" from Berlioz' Symponie Funèbre et Triomphale, with Orange County's Pacific Symphony performing Ravel's Bolero and the American Ballet Theatre in Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat.
As an "on-call" substitute he has played principal trombone with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Vancouver and San Diego Symphonies, the Long Beach, New West and Pacific Symphonies and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa (Mexico). He has performed on tenor-tuba (euphonium) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego, Hong Kong, Long Beach, Pacific, Vancouver and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras playing such pieces as Strauß' Ein Heldenleben and Don Quixote, and Holst's The Planets. On bass-trumpet he has performed the entire Wagner Ring with the Long Beach Opera as well as playing Wagner's Der Ring des Niebelungen, Janáček's Sinfonietta and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with the Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Long Beach and Pacific Symphonies.
Mr. Marsteller has developed a reputation for finding and playing unusual brass-wind instruments such as Alphorn heard in Star Trek III, Haunted Summer, Mystery Alaska and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Tibetan Temple Horns used in Star Trek III and Seven Years in Tibet, Ophicleide (for a "pre-lay" -- music recorded for actor's to dance to) in Amistad, Tenor Horn in Glory and Renaissance Man, Bass-Trumpet used in Fluppy Dogs, Toys and Matrix Revolutions, Bass-Flügelhorn in Fluppy Dogs and Alto Trombone in Extreme Measures. He has recorded at all the major motion picture, television and commercial studios for composers such as Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Bruce Broughton, Carmine Coppola, Bill Conti, Neil Diamond, Patrick Doyle, Ernest Gold, James Horner, Maurice Jarre, Elton John, Michel Le Grand, Henry Mancini, Alex North, André Previn, Basil Polidouris, Roger Wagner, John Williams and Hans Zimmer for such shows as Used Cars, Protocol, Wind River, Murder With Mirrors, Old Gringo, Shipwrecked, Return to the Blue Lagoon, Dead Again, True Lies, Crimson Tide, G.I. Jane, Pearl Harbor, Vega$, Quincy, Magnum P.I., Family Matters, Full House, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, etc.
In addition, he has performed with the Laguna Arts Festival's "Pageant of the Masters" and the Alaska, Aspen, Banff, Ojai and Red Lodge Music Festivals, the Calgary Stampede and Rodeo, and with the Disneyland, Los Angeles Rams and Long Beach Municipal Bands.
Mr. Marsteller is currently principal trombone with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and the California Philharmonic Orchestra, solo baritone with the Americus Brass Band and adjunct professor of music at California State University, Long Beach.