My Name is Reagan Shonk, I am currently studying composition at the University of

Northern Iowa.​ I didn't start out here in Iowa, I was born in Modesto, California in 1996.  From there my family moved to the Carolina's where I spent a good portion of my childhood. Living in Iowa, I can tell you that the warm climate of the south is constantly missed come winter. By 2008 My family moved to Iowa where we have been ever since. By 2010 I became a part of the Independence Jr. High-school band. It wasn't much but it is where I fell in love with the euphonium. Over the years I look back on how I got started and realize that the euphonium really became a big part of who I am.

I continued on through high school getting involved in all things musical, from choir to

jazz band; I really got involved in everything I could with music.  I just tried to find what it was that made me happy. If you ask those who knew me during High-school about me you would probably get a response that goes something like this, "Tenor Nation!!!". I was unafraid to be straight up goofy with my section and as a result we built a community. This was one of the things that worked so well with music. Music has this ability to bring people together and I was drawn to that aspect. 

The influence I of my high school's  music program led me to seriously consider music.

I continued to experiment with it and formulate my own ideas.

I started to compose late in my high school years. ( Albeit, not well.) I was greatly

influenced by jazz and how jazz musicians could improvise so well and yet seem to know exactly how to get where the piece was going. I found myself listening to J. J. Johnson, Delfeayo Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, and other great trombone jazz players. I tried to imitate them in my own playing and writing. as a result my compositions started taking a swingin' bluezzy kind of feel. I wasn't sure where that was going but I knew I liked it.

It took a lot of trial and error but I'm used to that, my music took on bits of my

personality. I found a hard time writing anything that didn't sound cheesy during that time, maybe that's because I was a cheesy person in high school.

After I graduated high school in the spring of 2015 I went to study at the University of

Northern Iowa. My style, over the last two years, has changed in a few ways; I started composing more classical feeling pieces and I started to seriously consider writing for tuba-euphonium groups. I am currently playing euphonium with UNITUBA (the tuba-euphonium ensemble on campus) and It has inspired me to do things like take my jazz influence and put it down in the lower register, giving a different feel to the same kind of swing. I also continue to experiment with other instruments and get a feel for what else I'm capable of. 

I'm not sure what the future holds but I want you to be a part of it. I want to give

the world something back for what has been poured into me. Hopefully I can give the gift of music.