Bernard Ekwuazi is a second-year undergraduate student at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying trombone performance under professor Carl Lenthe. Prior to Indiana University, he studied with Paul Jenkins, the principal trombone of the Nashville Symphony, through the Accelerando Program. 

Born in Nashville, he graduated from Blackman High school in Rutherford County in 2020. He participated Tennessee’s Mid-State and All-State festivals and Vanderbilt’s Curb Youth Symphony. During the summers, he attended the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, the Curtis Institute of Music Young Artist Program, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Trombone Workshop.  He played in the New World Symphony’s Town Hall Masterclass with Michael Tilson Thomas.  He received the John Philip Sousa Band Award and the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award.  In addition to orchestral music, Bernard enjoys playing and listening to jazz music.