Bass trombone players have a certain reputation among orchestral musicians. They are regularly called upon to anchor the brass section, if not the entire orchestra, with a huge raspy sound that cannot be ignored and leaves no doubt whatever about the pitch on which the entire harmonic construction rests. Accordingly, they are reputed to be big, rough-around-the-edges, hard-drinking guys.
Berkeley Symphony bass trombonist Kurt Patzner—who has played with the orchestra from its beginnings as the Berkeley Promenade—is the last person anyone would suspect of being a bass trombone player. The mild-mannered father of three boys drives a Toyota Prius and reads Victorian novels. But put a trombone in his hands and the requisite Mr. Hyde emerges.
Kurt was born in San Francisco, but grew up in Palm Springs, where his father was the band director at Palm Springs High School and played everything from the zither to the musical saw, saxophone, trombone, and bass (he played several of these instruments on the soundtrack for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). With tips from his father, Kurt taught himself to play the piano early on, and played keyboard in a rock band through high school and beyond. (He says the band changed its name repeatedly, because “every year was so different in the sixties.” Among the names were the Undertakers, the Breakers, the Fabulous Fables, and New Castle Express.)
He wanted to play drums, but his father didn’t go for that and tried to talk him into taking up the violin. Kurt’s response to that was “No way.” They compromised on the trombone, which he played in his high school orchestra and band. After graduating from high school, Kurt gave up the trombone, enrolled in the local community college as a business major, and continued playing with the rock band, now called Wheat. But business courses were “too boring,” says Kurt, and he decided to pick up the trombone again and study music at San Diego State. From there he went on to graduate school at San Francisco State, and after graduation started looking for music jobs in the Bay Area. The Berkeley Promenade was among the first jobs he landed.
“What’s kept me coming back is the repertoire,” says Kurt, “plus the people are fun to be with, and Kent does such a good job. We’ve done fantastic concerts—Messiaen, Frank Zappa, Terry Riley. There’s a lot excitement around the orchestra, and it’s fun to be involved with that.”
Kurt met his wife, violinist Carla Picchi, at a Berkeley Symphony rehearsal, and their first son, Anton, came into the world bathed in the music of Olivier Messiaen. “Carla was nine months pregnant when we did The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” he remembers. “Messiaen and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, saw Carla and said, ‘Oh my God. What are you doing here?’ And they brought her in the room with them and they pampered her, had her sit down, gave her water. Anton was born two days after the performance.”
In addition to the Berkeley Symphony, Kurt plays bass trombone in the Santa Rosa and Marin symphonies and has taught music at College Prep High School since 1985. He played with the San Francisco Ballet for a year and has played with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, and just about every other orchestra in the area.
Continuing in the family tradition, all of Kurt and Carla’s sons play more than one instrument and are involved in a wide range of musical activities. Anton, a violinist, has just graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz, and he and Lewis (who plays the cello and trombone and has just enrolled in the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore) have a heavy metal string duo called Judgment Day. Their youngest son, Graham, plays violin and trumpet.
.