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B i o g r a p h y

Trumpeter Kevin Quill is known for his sound and musicality.

 

As an orchestral musician, he has performed under numerous world class conductors including Alan Gilbert, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa Pekka Salonen, Semyon Bychkov, and Jaap Van Zweden. He has also performed in several of the world's most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen Halls, and the Kennedy Center. 

Kevin has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. He has also performed with the Riverside Symphony in New York City and performed the solo cornet part in Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat with the ensemble. From 2014 to 2016, he was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. His highlights from the festival include performing principal trumpet on Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies. In 2017, he played with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gabor Takacs-Nagy. In 2014 and 2017, Kevin was invited to play benefit concerts in Carnegie Hall with the Music for Life International Orchestra which is largely made up of musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  

 

As a soloist, Kevin gives recitals where he performs his own compositions and arrangements alongside early music, vocal transcriptions, and works in the standard repertoire. In 2017, he advanced to the finals of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which were held at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. Kevin has also performed several trumpet concertos with orchestras in New York City. In 2013, after winning Juilliard’s Trumpet Concerto Competition, he played Henri Tomasi’s Concerto pour trompette et orchestra with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume. Kevin has also played Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major with the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble in 2015 and Alexander Arutiunian's Trumpet Concerto in A-flat Major with the Broadway Bach Ensemble in 2017.

 

 In 2015, Kevin formed the brass quintet, Apex Brass. The group has performed in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, Morse Hall, the New York State Supreme Court Rotunda, St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2017, Apex Brass was one of four brass quintets in the world selected to compete in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition held at Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan. Later that year, Apex was invited to Tianjin, China where they performed at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tianjin Juilliard School.

 

In addition to his work in Apex Brass, Kevin has organized trumpet ensembles to perform for various occasions. In these ensembles, Kevin has heralded the renaming of Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall and performed alongside Sean Combs (P. Diddy) during his Emperor’s Ball at The Marquee Club in Manhattan. In 2016, he performed at the United Nations with a small brass ensemble to celebrate the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate. Later that year, Kevin performed music from Renaissance Venice with the American Brass Quintet at Paul Recital Hall.

 

Kevin holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Raymond Mase and Mark Gould. Upon receiving his Bachelor’s degree, he was awarded the John Erskine Prize for an exceptional level of scholastic and artistic achievement.  He was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship during his years in the master’s program at Juilliard. His doctoral dissertation is entitled “Death Symbolism in Gustav Mahler’s Music.”

 

Kevin is a member of the Ear Training faculty in Juilliard's College, Pre-College and Evening Divisions, and is a trumpet instructor at Fordham University. He also runs a private trumpet studio and gives lessons in ear training, music theory, and sight singing.

Kevin Quill

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