Craig Morris, Trumpet

Fast Facts

• Trumpet Professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami

• Guest principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony

• Principal trumpet, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music

Grammy-nominated trumpet soloist, Craig Morris, is a versatile performer comfortable in all genres of music from Baroque to Contemporary. Regarded as a leading proponent for new music and original programming, Morris received a 2019 Grammy Nomination in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for his album Three Pieces in the Shape of a Square, featuring the music of Philip Glass. Craig Morris has also recently premiered major pieces by two leading American composers: a major new concerto by Joel Puckett titled The Fifteenth Night of the Moon and also The Lightning Fields, a major new work for trumpet and piano by Michael Daugherty. Morris is featured in two solo recordings on the Naxos label: Concerto for Trumpet and Winds by Thom Sleeper on the album Reflections (another piece that was written for Morris), and his acclaimed debut solo album Permit Me Voyage, featuring his own original transcriptions of Debussy, Schumann, Brahms, and Barber.

Morris has an active recital touring schedule, most recently touring with highly regarded collaborative pianist Rebecca Wilt at universities and concert venues across the country. Morris has also been featured as a soloist with ensembles and festivals around the world, including appearances with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Miami Bach Society to name a few. Morris has also appeared at leading festivals including The Seminar for Advanced Studies at Chosen Vale in New Hampshire, 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.

Prior to his work as a soloist, Morris first gained an international reputation by being appointed Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by music director Daniel Barenboim, following the legendary Adolph “Bud” Herseth in that chair. Prior to that Morris was the Associate Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony, appointed to that chair by music director Michael Tilson Thomas. Still active as an orchestral performer, Morris has served as guest principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Sarasota Orchestra, and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra in San Diego. Since 2007, Morris has been the principal trumpet of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the world’s leading orchestral new music festival, where he has worked closely with some of the leading composers of our time.

Currently based in Miami, Florida, Craig Morris is the Trumpet Professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He has been a Yamaha Artist since 2015.