Performer, educator and clinician, Dr. Sterling Tanner is the Assistant Professor of Trombone at the University of Colorado Boulder. In addition to leading trombone activities at CU, Tanner coaches chamber music and serves as the faculty advisor for the CU Trombone Alliance.

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An S. E. Shires Performing Artist, Sterling Tanner has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States and abroad, including performances in Hong Kong and Valencia, Spain. Tanner was appointed principal trombonist of Project Opera Columbus in 2020, and is a member of the Ohio Trombone Consortium, a group consisting of collegiate trombone professors across Ohio who were invited to perform at the 2020 International Trombone Festival in Osaka, Japan. He also performs each summer with the Professors Choir at the Southeast Trombone Symposium in Columbus, GA.

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Sterling Tanner, an accomplished soloist, was named the winner of the 2016 and 2018 American Trombone Workshop Division III Bass Trombone Solo Competition, the 2015 Southeastern Trombone Symposium S. E. Shires Solo Competition, and was a finalist in the 2016 International Trombone Festival’s Donald Yaxley Solo Competition. He has also shared the stage with trombone greats such as Jim Markey, Charlie Vernon, Denson Paul Pollard, George Curran, Joseph Alessi, Bill Thomas, Brian Hecht and Gerry Pagano. From 2010–2014, Tanner collaborated in a unique recording project at Columbus State University, where various trombone artists recorded solo works with trombone ensemble. The culmination of the collaboration resulted in a disc released by Summit records entitled A Beautiful Noise.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Sterling Tanner earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Columbus State University (GA). He holds both MM and DMA degrees in trombone performance from the University of Texas at Austin. His teachers include Bradley Palmer and Nathaniel Brickens. Tanner currently holds memberships with the American Federation of Musicians, the International Trombone Association, Ohio Music Educators Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and the National Association of Music Education.