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Editor's Note: This is part of a new series on KSL.com where we do a follow-up article about Utahns who we have previously featured on KSL. If you have been the subject of a feature story on KSL in the past and would like to be part of our "Where Are They Now?" series, email cwilliams@deseretdigital.com for consideration. SALT LAKE CITY — Evan Rice has a lifetime experience with music and marching bands.
When KSL first featured Rice in 1981, the then-16-year-old Rice, going by his first name Stuart at the time, was soloing with the Utah Symphony’s “Salute to Youth” program. It was quite the feat for a euphoniumist such as he was. At the time, nobody had done that.
That’s because the demand for a full-time euphoniumist isn’t high in orchestras. Trombonists typically fill in if it’s needed.
“I called up an orchestra conductor once and he just about did everything but laugh in my face when I asked him if he’d want to experiment with the euphonium,” Rice said at that time. “That kind of gave me more of an incentive to get an extra sound in there — kind of an extra tone to build up the brass section … I think it belongs there.”
Since that 1981 TV story, Rice has gone through quite the journey that has taken him all over the U.S. In 1983, he accepted a tuition award at The Juilliard School, where he played both the trombone and the euphonium.
“I went out to New York and auditioned for a couple of schools out there,” he said, reminiscing about the past. “The Juilliard audition was one of the best and they gave me a tuition award, which helped because I was pretty poverty-stricken.”
However, while there he said he lost interest in the idea of playing music for a living. Instead, he transferred to the University of Utah, where he studied other aspects of music.
Rice began to focus his attention on marching bands instead of orchestral music. Prior to attending Juilliard, he performed with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps team that competed at Drum Corps International, placing second that year.
“(Marching) kind of overtook my interest in music, so (I) studied that on my own for a while and began self-publishing and presenting research in a couple of places across the country,” he said.
Rice received a bachelor’s degree and once taught music. His passion for marching band, however, hasn’t changed through the years.
While he had presented research on the topic all over the country, he hasn’t performed much. Feeling the itch to return to marching, Rice contacted Dr. Adam Lambert, an associate professor and director of bands at Southern Utah University to see if Lambert could use any help.
Lambert said yes, and Rice will march and play the valve trombone with the school’s band for the next few weeks, including this weekend as the SUU Thunderbirds football team plays Southeastern Louisiana in their home-opening game.
Rice said music has given him an escape from "social phobias" he has. Marching ensembles gave him more of a "fluid setting," which is what drew him in that direction.
He added he is excited to return to that feeling of participating in a marching band.
“There’s nothing like getting your feet back on the turf and moving rhythmically with people around you like that,” Rice said. “For me, it’s getting back in touch with this research in a very personal way that I’ve been promoting for the last 30 years, really. … I don’t know what will come from it, but you need to get acquainted somehow.”
