Staff
Dennis Horton
Professor of Trumpet
Dennis Horton, professor of trumpet, has been a member of the Central Michigan University School of Music faculty since 1968, teaching applied trumpet, brass techniques and theory related subjects, and coaching brass chamber ensembles and conducting the CMU Brass Band. His former students have distinguished themselves in obtaining performing and teaching positions in numerous orchestras and universities in the United States: New England, the Midwest, the west coast, and Florida. Several of his students have also received many teaching awards in Michigan including being nominated for “Teacher of the Year”. A sabbatical leave during the 1992-93 year resulted in several innovations in the School of Music, most notably in the use of computers in music notation and in teaching Orchestration.
Dr. Horton has twice been nominated for “Outstanding Faculty Award” at CMU. Dr. Horton, during his tenure at CMU, has served as principal trumpet of several orchestras in the state (including the Midland Symphony Orchestra 1977-1991) and, from 1983-2002, was a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra trumpet section. His professional performing activities have taken him to many of the important concert venues in America including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, and Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. While a member of the GRSO, he participated in several recordings during the 1990's: Symphonies #2 and #3 of David Ott, Symphonies #1 and #2 of Camille Saint-Saens, Three Concertos (Clarinet, Violin, Trombone) by Donald Erb and two “Piano Pops” (with Rich Ridenour), “Christmas Pops”, and "American Landscapes" (music celebrating the 100th birth date of Aaron Copland). Dr. Horton, as a member of several orchestras, has participated in several premier performances by many composers including William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, Lukas Foss, Donald Erb, and David Ott, to mention a few. He has also played under many distinguished conductor/performers (Eugene Ormandy, Morton Gould, Catherine Comet, Barry Tuckwell, Alexander Schneider, and David Lockington) and performed several concerts with the New York Brass Quintet, the Empire Brass, and the Canadian Brass. He also was principal trumpet in a PBS National Broadcast of a revival of Aaron Copland’s opera: “The Tender Land” with the composer as conductor. At CMU, Dr. Horton’s CMU Alumni Trumpet Ensemble performed and recorded his “Suite for Six Trumpets”, which is on the inaugural School of Music CD (1998). Dr. Horton has numerous published compositions and arrangements. To date, he has eighteen works for trumpet ensemble. The “Suite for Six Trumpets” (1989) has been featured throughout the world: at the International Trumpet Guild Conferences (1990, 1998, 1999, and 2001), at the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik, the Graz Festival (Austria) and, in December, 1999 on Austria 01 Radio on a live broadcast which also included several of Dr. Horton’s arrangements of Christmas Carols for trumpet ensemble. In the Spring of 1999, he was commissioned by the University of Tennessee to write a work (“Scottish Fantasy”) for large trumpet ensemble to be premiered in Knoxville, TN in March and ultimately to be performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference at the University of Virginia in Richmond in May, 1999, and again performed at the ITG Conferences: SUNY-Purchase, May 2000 and the University of Evansville, May 2001. Dr. Horton has also had numerous brass choir and brass band works performed throughout the U.S. and the world. His composition Prelude “Laudes Domine” (“When morning gilds the skies”) was a prizewinner in the 1994 Millar Brass Ensemble Composition Contest (a brass band version of the work was featured on the CMU Brass Band concert in April, 2001). The highly acclaimed trumpet ensemble “Merkuns”, comprised of the leading trumpeters of Tokyo, released a CD in February, 2003 that featured two of Dr. Horton’s compositions: “Suite for Six trumpets” and “Scottish Fantasy” on the Meister Music label. In the recent past, Dr. Horton has been directly involved in the preparation and publication of several works of Professor Clifford P. Lillya (Earl V. Moore Professor Emeritus - The University of Michigan) including: “Trumpet Technic”, (an important pedagogical book for the university studio teacher), band arrangements of several solo works: Barat - Andante and Scherzo”, Vidal - “Concertino”, and Mendelssohn – “Nocturne from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’.” Dr. Horton holds the bachelor of music, master of music, and doctor of musical arts in performance degrees from The University of Michigan where he studied with Clifford P. Lillya. He is a founding member of the International Trumpet Guild, and holds honorary memberships in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
Contact Information
Email: dennis.horton@cmich.edu
Phone: (989) 774-1962
Room: MU 272
Recordings
