Bio 1

TJ Menges is a founding member of the Fountain City Brass Band, having started on Repiano Cornet before moving to Solo Horn.  As well as playing with the FCBB, TJ is also an active freelance musician in the Kansas City area.  He has performed with the St. Joseph Symphony, the Kansas City Ballet, and the 70’s R&B group Bloodstone.  In 2000 he appeared as a guest performer for the Bartlesville Mozart Festival. 

Since 1999, he has performed with the orchestra at the Colorado MahlerFest.  In 2005, this orchestra was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society, Vienna – an honor bestowed only thirty-nine times in its fifty year history. 

An avid admirer of English history, literature, and music, he is also a member of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a composer for whom he has a lifelong affinity.

TJ holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and is currently seeking a Master of Music from the University of Central Missouri.

Bio 2

TJ Menges is a founding member of the Fountain City Brass Band, having started on Repiano Cornet before moving to Solo Horn.  He feels this was an unfair trade, as it usually requires him to perform every piece with an extra sharp in the key signature, and he has always been partial to flat keys.

Though no one seems to know it, he is actually a decent trumpet player, and has performed on numerous stages with limited success.  He plays yearly with the Colorado MahlerFest, and this is the only thing on his resume that even smacks of legitimacy.

An avid science fiction fan, he is also an outspoken critic of the Euphonium.  He has authored numerous unpublished articles on this subject, which is very near and dear to his heart, including Eu-PHONY-um, Euphonium Verboten, and his existentialist treatise Euphoni-UMMM…., an homage to anti-totalitarian ideals of Albert Camus.

His mere existence seems to be the punch line of countless jokes within the FCBB, even among newer members.  Astonishingly, he has yet to let this get him down, and has avoided sinking into a nihilist depression through his mixture of good humor and carefully plotted revenge.

TJ barely graduated from the University of Missouri – Kansas City with a Bachelor of Music in Performance.  He hopes he can replicate these results in his current quest for a degree at the University of Central Missouri.