Christopher Scanlon

Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Brass Area Coordinator

Chris Scanlon, D.M.A., is a dynamic performer and educator with a diverse performing career. He has appeared with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East and across the United States. An active chamber music, Scanlon records, performs and commissions new works as a member of the Axiom Brass, Palisade Trumpet Collective and Silver Spruce Trio. He has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Center in DC, Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Vienna Musikverein, the Zurich Tonhalle, Opera Houses of Dubai and Tokyo and in Broadway theaters for Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, An American in Paris and Kiss Me Kate. Chris has performed as co-principal trumpet of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra since 2008 with broadcasts on medici.tv and international tours with artists such as Joshua Bell, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Daniil Trifonov, Andras Schiff, Yuja Wang and others.

In the past Scanlon has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Boston Lyric Opera, Singapore Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Charleston Symphony, U.S. Coast Guard Band, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago and under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, John Williams, James Levine, Simon Rattle, Kurt Mazur, Valery Gergiev, Robert Spano, Daniel Harding, Gianandrea Noseda and Rafael Frubeck de Burgos. Chris performed in New York and Mexico as a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas and served as associate principal trumpet of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey Mexico. Past festival invitations include Artosphere, Banff, Spoleto, Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, Verbier and Tanglewood where he was the recipient of the Roger Voisin Award.

As a soloist he has performed Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Trumpet with Yuja Wang, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Copland’s Quiet City, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Trumpets and with the Illinois Brass Band and NIU Wind Ensemble. Equally at home in contemporary music settings, Chris has recorded new music with the Grammy award winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Xenakis’s Eonta with the Callithumpian Consort, Andy Akiho’s Speaking Tree for 2022’s Oculus, premiers of works by Rodion Schedrin with the VFCO and the Elliot Carter Brass Quintet, coached by the composer, at Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music.

He has appeared on stage with popular artists such as Josh Groban, Harry Connick Jr, Neil Patrick Harris, Hanson, Questlove, Paul Shafer, Patti Labelle, Rufus Wainwright, Paul Giamatti, with Broadway stars such as Brian Stokes Mitchell, Lena Hall and Kelli O’Hara, and Latin stars such as Aleks Syntek, Natalia Lafourcade, Mariachi Vargas and Pedro Fernandez. Television credits include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the award-winning Amazon series, Mozart in the Jungle. Scanlon founded Banda Nueva York, a cross-cultural, Mexican brass band whose original arrangements by Latin Grammy winner Julio Lizarraga can be heard on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube.

Scanlon has been an adjudicator for the Next Generation Trumpet Competition, Illinois solo and ensemble competitions, and brass coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Scanlon has presented master classes at universities across the United States and performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, International Women’s Brass Conference and the Indiana Music Educators Conference. Scanlon currently serves as the Chamber Music Division chair for the International Trumpet Guild conference competitions. Scanlon’s students have gone on to win positions with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and regional orchestras, graduate assistantships in top doctoral programs, and teaching positions in college and secondary education.

Scanlon received the Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University, the Master of Music from Rice University, Professional Studies Certificate from Manhattan School of Music and the Doctorate of Music Arts from Stony Brook University. His principal teachers include Thomas Rolfs, Mark Gould, Marie Speziale, Joseph Foley and Kevin Cobb.

Scanlon can be heard on Naxos, Mode records, BMOP/Sound and Deutsch Gramophone. Chris’s work editing etudes and the Caruso method has been published by Hal Leonard and Charles Colin publications. Scanlon is a Bach Performing Artist and performs exclusively on Mutec mutes.