FSU Baroque Trumpet Ensemble

The FSU Trumpet Ensemble, first formed in 1974, was one of the first of its kind to be formed in the United States. Membership is by audition and includes the top graduate and undergraduate players. The ensemble has performed at the national MENC convention, and has been invited to perform on six occasions at International Trumpet Guild Conferences at Madison, Wisconsin, Lexington, Kentucky, Columbus, Ohio, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rotterdam, Holland, and Gothenburg, Sweden.

In 1991, the FSU Baroque Trumpet Ensemble was formed in conjunction with the on-campus residency of the renowned early music scholar, Edward H. Tarr, who fulfilled that spring semester's FSU Housewright Eminent Scholar Chair. This intensive study of the stylistic practice on Baroque trumpets paved the way for a performance that year by this group at the ITG Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the first time a student baroque trumpet ensemble had ever been invited to perform at one of the annual conferences.

That impressive performance drew an invitation for the FSU Baroque Trumpet Ensemble to perform at the following year's 1992 ITG conference in Rotterdam, Holland. In addition to that performance, the group's itinerary included concerts in Antwerp, Belgium and Köln, Germany (photo above).

The 1997 FSU Baroque Trumpet Ensemble (photo below) accepted an invitation to perform a concert at the 1997 ITG Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden in August. For this concert they were joined by the University of North Texas Baroque Trumpet Ensemble, directed by Professor Leonard Candelaria. Following a week of rehearsals together at the FSU Studies Abroad Center in London, England, the combined ensemble performed an evening concert on August 1st at the historical St. James Church Piccadilly in the heart of London, before traveling to Sweden.