ANN ARBOR—They’re coming back to Ann Arbor to blow their own horns. Two University of Michigan alumni will appear at Hill Auditorium at 4 p.m. Dec. 14 with the U.S. Coast Guard Band. Trombonists Chief Musician Victor V. Johnson and Musician 1st Class Gregory S. Wirt will be a part of the free holiday concert sponsored by the U-M School of Music and the Ann Arbor News.

Johnson, who hails from Westland and is a graduate of Wayne Memorial High School, attended U-M’s School of Music on a full academic scholarship, receiving a bachelor of music degree in 1975. Before joining the U.S. Coast Guard Band as principal trombone in 1978, Johnson taught instrumental music in Charlotte, Mich., public schools. Besides his duties with the Coast Guard Band, Johnson has performed as a member of that organization’s Trombone Quartet and performs with the Eastern Connecticut, New Britain, and Waterbury Symphonies, and is an adjunct instructor of music at Connecticut College.

Wirt, a graduate of Charlotte High School where he won the John Philip Sousa Award for his participation in the band program, joined the U.S. Coast Guard Band in 1982 where his talents were put to good and immediate use by the Coast Guard Dixieland Band, the Masters of Swing, and as a member of the trombone quartet. While at U-M, Wirt studied with H. Dennis Smith. Featured regularly as a soloist with the Coast Guard Band both at home in New London and on tour throughout the country, Wirt also holds the position of principal trombone in the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and is a member of the Connecticut Brass.

Cmdr. Lewis J. Buckley will wield the baton for the free Dec. 14 concert. Col. Nikolai Ushapovsky, with whom a bond was formed when the Coast Guard Band became the first American military ensemble to perform in the Soviet Union, will be the guest conductor. Ushapovsky has programmed a selection of Russian music, including selections from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.”

University of Michigan