The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce the appointment of two new principal musicians: Taylor Jones, Principal Trombone, and Jacob Gutierrez, Principal Timpani.

Jones and Gutierrez were awarded their positions with the WSO after successfully auditioning this past winter.

Taylor Jones has held the position of Trombone II in the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra since the fall of 2018. An active freelancer, Taylor also regularly performs as a guest musician with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra, Pittsburgh Festival Opera Orchestra, and the Harrisburg Symphony. Before Taylor moved to Pittsburgh in 2018 from his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, he held the position of Bass Trombone in the Meridian Symphony Orchestra (MS) for two seasons.

Taylor also greatly enjoys performing in chamber music settings such as Chamber Orchestra Pittsburgh, where he recorded Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat, Pulcinella Suite, and Messiaen’s monumental Des canyons aux etoiles…

Taylor has also performed with musicians such as Andrea Bocelli, Yo-Yo Ma, Johnny Mathis, The Who, Weird Al Yankovic, and many others.

In addition to keeping a busy performing schedule, Taylor also maintains an active private trombone studio in the greater Pittsburgh area.

Taylor has studied trombone performance under Dr. Ben McIlwain at the University of Southern Mississippi, and James Nova (Trombone, Pittsburgh Symphony) at Duquesne University, and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from those institutions respectively.

Outside of music, Taylor enjoys woodworking, repairing and building custom brass instruments, and drinking way too much coffee.

Percussionist and teaching artist Jacob Gutierrez is crafting a career model around being a true 21st-century musician. With experience ranging from his touring percussion trio to performances at the Kennedy Center, Gutierrez is charting a career path of entrepreneurialism in tandem with award-winning musicianship.

Gutierrez is most known for his work in cultivating the percussion repertoire, creating evocative concert experiences that both entertain and educate. To this end, he and his two brothers co-founded 3G Percussion, a nationally recognized percussion trio. Having toured in Texas and across Canada with Ensemble Atlantica, 3G has been featured on Houston Public Media Radio Station, the San Antonio Current, and “Live & Local” on KRTU 91.7FM. Furthermore, 3G proudly collaborated with multiple organizations to create large-scale interdisciplinary works, including the Transitory Sound and Movement Collective. With TSMC, Gutierrez spearheaded an hour-long performance of dance, film, and music with creatives from Dallas and New York City. 3G was also the anointed Guest Ensemble at the 2018 Space City New Music Festival, where they gave the world premiere of Marcus Maroney’s work “Escape,” in addition to sixteen other works by composers from around the United States, Mexico, and Germany.

A proud proponent of new music, Gutierrez is a member of several commissioning consortiums to generate new music from composers such as Alejandro Vinao, Emmanuel Sejourne, Juri Seo, and Rajna Swaminathan. He has performed some of the era’s most celebrated–and challenging–work for percussion, including Kaija Saariaho’s “Six Japanese Gardens”, Joseph Schwantner’s “Velocities”, Alejandro Vinao’s “Book of Grooves”, and Peter Klatzow’s “Dances of Earth and Fire”.

Gutierrez has performed with recognized artists and ensembles including the Yale Percussion Group, Sō Percussion, Caroline Shaw, Magda Giannikou, Yale Jazz Combo, MUSIQA, The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps, and has performed at venues and festivals such as Canada’s Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy, Western University, Lone Star College Contemporary Music Festival, Rothko Chapel, Space City New Music Festival, So Percussion Summer Institute, Cloyd Duff Timpani Masterclass, and the International Timpani Intensive at Rice University. Furthermore, as a member of The Cadets, he was named as part of the country’s top drum corps percussion section in 2013, receiving the Fred Sanford High Percussion Award. As an orchestral musician, Gutierrez has performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as Marin Alsop, Joseph Young, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Peter Oundjian, Raymond Harvey, Arthur Arnold, and Laurent Pillot.

Gutierrez holds degrees from Yale University, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Houston, and is a licensed K-12 music educator in Texas.

The WSO is thrilled to welcome both of these outstanding musicians to our organization!