Berklee College of Music Brass Department collection by Tom Plsek, 1973-2003

Although the Berklee College of Music in its early days as the Schillinger House (1945-1954) and the Berklee School of Music (1954-1970) was not consistently organized into a strict division of departments, the central place of jazz in the curriculum ensured from the beginning the importance of brass. Trombone and trumpet were taught as principal instruments as early as 1955, and in 1989 an overall Brass department was formally established by merging the individual instrument departments. Tom Plsek (1948?-2024), Professor of Trombone since 1973 and chair of the department since 1979, became chair of the new Brass department, a position he held for 25 years through 2014.

One of the main activities of the trombone department was the organizing of Sackbut Week, an annual week of trombone-centered events and performances, usually held in April. It was first staged in 1973 by Tom Everett and Phil Wilson, who were joined the following year by Plsek in organizing the subsequent Sackbut Weeks. The last of these annual events was held in 1986.

Another annual event organized by the Brass department was Windsday, held from approximately 1995 through 2002. Members of the Brass department and its predecessor also participated in several annual conferences as attendees and/or co-organizers, including the New York Brass Conference, the International Trombone Workshop, the International Trombone Festival, and the New England Brass Convention.

Following his retirement as chair, Plsek continued to teach acoustics courses part-time until 2020, fully retiring after nearly fifty years of instruction at Berklee. He passed away in February 2024.