Craig Morris

Craig Morris is the Associate Professor of Trumpet at the Frost School of Music where he teaches trumpet and also coaches chamber music. Prior to his arrival in Miami, Professor Morris held the positions of Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony and Associate Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony. He has also won auditions for Principal Trumpet of the St. Louis Symphony, Fourth Trumpet of the Boston Symphony, and Fourth Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony.

After winning international recognition, Professor Morris now devotes himself to his work as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Regarded as a leading proponent for new music and original programming, he recently premiered major pieces by two leading American composers -- a major new concerto by Joel Puckett titled The Fifteenth Night of the Moon and The Lightning Fields, a major new work for trumpet and piano by Michael Daugherty. The latter is slated to be orchestrated into a concerto in 2017.

Professor Morris is featured in two solo recordings on the Naxos label -- the Concerto for Trumpet and Winds by Thom Sleeper on the album Reflections (also written for Morris), and his acclaimed debut solo album Permit Me Voyage, featuring his own original transcriptions of Debussy, Schumann, Brahms, and Barber. These recordings are distributed worldwide and can heard on radio stations around the globe. His next album, recorded by Grammy Award winning engineer John Newton, will be dedicated entirely to the solo music of Philip Glass.

As a soloist, Professor Morris has been featured with ensembles and festivals around the world, including concerto appearances with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, the Frost School of Music Wind Ensemble, and the Miami Bach Society, to name a few. He is slated to perform and record the Christopher Rouse concerto for trumpet, Heimdall's Trumpet, with the Albany Symphony in February of 2018. This recording will be the world premier recording of this piece, and will be featured on an album of world premier recordings of Rouse concertos.

Professor Morris has also appeared at leading international festivals, including Instrumenta Oaxaca in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Schagerl Brass Festival in Melk, Austria, the Blekinge International Brass Institute in Karlskrona, Sweden, and the Beijing Modern Music Festival in Beijing, China. He has been the principal trumpet of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music since 2007, and has served as guest principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, and the Jacksonville Symphony.