Bass trombonist Dennis Bubert, who holds the Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Bass chair, joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in 1981 after serving in the same capacity in the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.  His teachers include Thomas Streeter, John Kitzman, Edward Kleinhammer, Arnold Jacobs, Edwin Anderson and Charles Vernon.  He is a frequent guest performer with other orchestras, and has presented recitals and masterclasses around the country, as well as appearing as a guest artist with such diverse groups as the International Trombone Festival, the Texas Music Educators Association, and the Texas Flute Society.

In addition to being a veteran member of the FWSO, Mr. Bubert has maintained a busy second career as a teacher, and has taught at the University of North Texas, Texas Christian University and Texas Wesleyan University. He currently teaches at the University of Texas at Arlington.  His former students hold positions in orchestras in this country, Europe, South American and Asia, as well playing with some of the great orchestras of the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Zurich Opera and Royal Concertgebouw.  His students have also won international solo competitions and performed with music festivals in the U.S. and Europe.  He is proud of all of their accomplishments, as he is of those students who have served as Peace Corp volunteers, environmentalists, music educators, political activists and human rights advocates. 

Mr. Bubert was the originator and long-time editor of the “Orchestral Excerpts” column of the Journal of the International Trombone Association, which featured commentaries and performance suggestions on the orchestral repertoire from prominent players around the world.  During the seventeen years Mr. Bubert edited his column, almost 200 orchestral trombonists shared their craft with Journal readers.

He is currently involved with a consortium of bass trombonists from other major U.S. orchestras to commission new solo works for the instrument, as well as working on “8X8X8”, a project with eight Texas composers to create eight new trombone octets for trombone professors at eight Texas universities.

He's particularly proud of the extraordinary artistic growth of the orchestra during its partnership with Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and finds inspiration from the many new young members of the orchestra, who bring with them extraordinary talent, great training and enthusiasm for music making.  “I feel fortunate to have had dual careers in an art form which represents some of the greatest accomplishments of the human mind and expresses the loftiest sentiments of the human spirit.  I try to convey that in my teaching, rather than simply burdening my students with a compendium of instrumental technique.”

Dennis and his wife Janet make their home in an older Fort Worth neighborhood, where their two dogs are kind enough to allow them to live.  Dennis is also an ardent fly fisherman, and spends as much time in Montana as the schedule, finances and his conscience will allow.