biography

Internationally acclaimed trumpeter and educator Joe Burgstaller is a dynamic and unique force in today's music world. Fueled by an artistic drive to explore and expand, Joe has the distinction of being a former full-time member of both of the premiere brass chamber groups in the history of their respective fields: Canadian Brass and the avant-garde Meridian Arts Ensemble. Also, for years he was one of the all-time most popular soloists at Columbia Artists' Community Concerts (alumni include Van Cliburn and Heifetz), performing 60 solo concerts per year as North America's busiest trumpet recitalist. Joe has performed and taught in hundreds of cities throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia (performing in most every major performance venue in the world) and has performed and taught at over 80 universities, conservatories and colleges. He tours internationally as a soloist, with his crossover group BM4 (BurgstallerMartignon4), and as a clinician and teacher, as well as holding a permanent position teaching trumpet and chamber music at The Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, MD.

As the third-longest tenured trumpeter in the history of the famed Canadian Brass, Joe toured worldwide performing in recital and with orchestra (Philadelphia, Minnesota, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, New Jersey, Seattle, et al.). He was often featured as a soloist, and the group regularly performed and recorded his arrangements (AllMusicGuide.com heralded Joe's "superb set of arrangements" of Astor Piazzolla). Three Canadian Brass CDs featuring Joe became Top-10 Billboard hits.

As a member of the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Mr. Burgstaller performed worldwide at both major concert halls and clubs including NYC's Knitting Factory and CBGB's, and Amsterdam's Bimhuis, received the ASCAP "Adventurous Programming Award" (shared with the Kronos Quartet) and recorded several of his own compositions and arrangements. Gramophone Magazine heralded Joe's original work Lullaby as "an understated gem."

Burgstaller was also one of the all-time most popular soloists at Columbia Artists' Community Concerts (alumni include Van Cliburn and Heifetz), performing nearly 60 solo concerts each season with his Joe Burgstaller: The Rafael Mendez Project. The Instrumentalist dubbed him "The Next Mendez." Dr. Robert Mendez, son of the legendary trumpeter, wrote of Joe: "He's mastered my father's works." Joe's first solo CD, the Virtuoso Trumpet, was a runaway best-seller during this period in which he was known as North America's busiest trumpet recitalist.

Joe co-leads the crossover quartet BM4 (BurgstallerMartignon4), a New York City-based group that features Grammy and Oscar-nominated musicians. Their first recording "Mozart's Blue Dreams & Other Crossover Fantasies" debuted directly into the Top50 JazzRadio charts and garnered rave reviews ("Ethereal moments of true beauty and genius... hip and approachable." – AllAboutJazz.com; "Stunning!" – JazzNotes). Joe's inventive self-produced music videos for "Mozart's Blue Dreams" were debuted worldwide by Yamaha America and Yamaha Europe as a special industry-leading video-podcast release. BM4 records for Summit Records (North America) and CARE Music Group (Europe). As of this writing, their latest release, "Bach's Secret Drawer & More Crossover Fantasies" was #75 on the Radio charts for all New York-based artists (below Paul Simon and just above the Beastie Boys).

Burgstaller currently resides in New York City and teaches at The Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, MD, where he teaches trumpet, chamber music and "The Myth of Reality and the Illusion of Control", a special eight-part Performance Class series for all instruments. Joe has built a groundbreaking one-of-a-kind trumpet studio that prepares their students for the demands and reality of today's music world. His teaching emphasizes creativity, connection, versatility and entrepreneurship, and he combines the best of traditional techniques with an innovative mental training approach that has its roots in the field's breakthrough discoveries of the last two decades. Every summer he teaches at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA.

Joe was a child prodigy, beginning the cornet at age six. By age twelve he was improvising jazz and soloing with area bands and jazz clubs, and by fifteen was the youngest professional in the Virginia Opera Orchestra. He received both his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Arizona State University (studying with Regents' Professor David Hickman). Other teachers and mentors include Anthony Plog, Stephen Carlson, Jonathan Greenburg, Gary Gompers, Gail Eugene Wilson and David Fedderly. Joe was awarded Arizona State University's Inaugural "Distinguished Alumnus Award", and the Inaugural "Outstanding Alumnus Award" from Eastern Music Festival. Joe Burgstaller is a longtime Yamaha Performing Artist.