Stanley Curtis

Biography

Stanley Curtis has developed a multi-faceted career as a trumpeter, composer, and early music specialist. After studying at the University of Alabama, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and in the Netherlands on a Fulbright Scholarship, he received his Doctor of Music from Indiana University in 2005. Having retired from a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., he was appointed to a one-year position in 2018 and then accepted a tenure-track offer in 2019 as assistant professor of trumpet at Colorado State University. Since 2012, he has composed a number of award-winning solo and chamber works featuring the trumpet.

Currently, Stanley performs as principal trumpet of the Fort Collins Symphony, and is a member of the CSU Faculty Brass Quintet. In the U.S. Navy Band, he performed hundreds of concerts in the Washington, D.C., area, went on dozens of national and international tours with the Concert/Ceremonial Band, was a member and leader of the U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet and, as a ceremonial bugler, performed Taps thousands of times at Arlington National Cemetery. He also served as assistant principal trumpet in the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (in Spain) from 1994- 1997 and as principal trumpet with the Evansville Philharmonic from 1991- 1994. He won third prize at the 1995 Altenburg Baroque Trumpet Competition, in Germany. He was also a concerto competition winner at Indiana University, Brevard Music Camp, and the University of Alabama.

As a teacher, Dr. Curtis has taught at the University of Evansville, the Music School of the Orquesta Sinfónica, Catholic University of America, and at George Mason University. He organized and chaired the Historic Trumpet Division of the National Trumpet Competition from 2004-2009. He has led clinics at the University of Montevallo, the National Trumpet Competition, Cleveland State University, the Maryland Early Brass Festival, Indiana University, the University of Alabama, and Murray State University. He has written articles for the International Trumpet Guild Journaland the Historic Brass Society Newsletter.

Critics have praised Stanley across the country:

Elaine Schmidt wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “…[In Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2], the soloists and orchestra created moments of energetic music, full of expressive momentum. Many of those moments came from Curtis’ attention to long phrases. He gave clear direction to every note, from soaring solo lines to small ideas he connected into long, arched phrases…” [Oct. 22, 2001]

Cecilia Porter wrote in the Washington Post, “Stanley Curtis played a mean “Bach” trumpet Saturday, with even the fastest slew of notes obtained solely by resorting to lungs, chest muscles, lips and tongue.  He was among the crackerjack soloists of the Bach Sinfonia…” [Nov. 22, 2004]

Joan Reinthaler wrote in the Washington Post about a cooperative concert between the Countertop Ensemble and the WCSE: “The "cornett" in the instrumental ensemble bears almost no relation to the modern cornet. Dating from the 15th century, it is slightly bent, usually made of wood with finger holes like a recorder's and a mouthpiece a little like a trumpet's. Played well (as it was, here, by Stanley Curtis) it sounds like an exceptionally clear human voice.” [Oct. 6, 2008]

Curtis blogs on the Trumpet Journey website. www.trumpetjourney.com