About

Brian Neal, 2025 Trumpet Seminar Faculty

A 2021 Emmy Award Winner in Performance & Composition and praised by Cleveland Classical Review for his “remarkably warm singing tone,”Brian Neal is a multifaceted trumpet player whose artistry has been captivating audiences for decades.  Mr. Neal is currently the Trumpet Professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. His performances have taken him across the United States, Europe, and Russia.

Currently in his 14th season as a featured member of the internationally acclaimed Dallas Brass, Mr. Neal has also served as principal trumpet of the Miami City Ballet Orchestra. He has appeared with symphony orchestras nationwide, including performances with the Utah Symphony under Keith Lockhart and the Florida Philharmonic under Peter Nero. As a soloist, he has performed with the California Symphony, Monterey Ensemble, Florida Philharmonic, Orchestra Miami, Miami Wind Symphony, the Leganés Orchestra in Spain, and the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.

With the Dallas Brass, Mr. Neal gives over 40 solo performances annually. The ensemble has been featured at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, on the CBS Early Show, and has toured extensively in Europe and Russia. A cornerstone of their work is music education: through clinics and collaborative concerts, Mr. Neal has worked with hundreds of school band programs across the country, inspiring thousands of young musicians.

As a composer and featured soloist, Mr. Neal premiered his original work Concertante #1 at Carnegie Hall and with the Escuela-Conservatorio Orquesta Manuel Rodríguez Sales in Spain. His Emmy-winning 2022 collaboration involved artists from four countries and was recognized for excellence in both performance and composition.

Mr. Neal is a member and soloist with Sitka Brass, an ensemble comprising musicians from major U.S. orchestras. He also founded and directed Brass Miami, featured for five consecutive years in the Miami Bach Society’s Tropical Baroque Festival. Now in his 20th season, he serves as Director of the Brass Ensemble at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Alaska.

He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami, and was a fellow at leading summer festivals including Tanglewood, Waterloo, the Fontainebleau Conservatory in France, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, where he performed with the Meridian Arts Ensemble. He has worked under the direction of world-renowned conductors including Charles Dutoit, Yoel Levi, John Nelson, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Stanislav Skrowaczewski, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Leon Fleisher.

His solo album Reflections was featured on NPR’s Pipe Dreams, and he is a prominent soloist on numerous Dallas Brass recordings. He also appeared on Alejandro Sanz’s Latin Grammy–winning album La Música No Se Toca.