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James Vaughen

Principal Trumpet, Mr. And Mrs. Archibald G. Bush Chair

James Vaughen joins the Minnesota Orchestra as its principal trumpet in fall 2025, having most recently served as assistant principal trumpet with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Vaughen has performed throughout Europe with the London Symphony Orchestra, spent four months on tour with the Canadian Brass, and most recently won first prize and the audience award at the 2023 Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments. From 2023-24 he held a one-year principal position with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and served as the assistant principal trumpet of Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra.

Passionate about advancing solo trumpet repertoire, Vaughen performs extensively in recitals and competitions. He took first place in all three divisions of the 2021 International Trumpet Guild Ryan Anthony Memorial Competition and won the 2020 Roger Voisin Memorial Trumpet Competition. Vaughen placed third in the 2021 Ellsworth-Smith International Trumpet Competition and was awarded Special Jury Prize at the 2022 Maurice André International Trumpet Competition.

Performing across four continents with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra from 2015 through 2017, Vaughen joined their All-Star reunion concert at Carnegie Hall in March 2024. He was a member of the Pacific Music Festival Academy in 2018 and a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 2020 and 2021.

Vaughen began playing piano at age 6 and trumpet at age 10 and often finds himself improvising on the piano. His teachers include David Bilger, Tom Rolfs, Ronald Romm and Sal Percoco. He enjoys visiting family in his hometown of Champaign, Illinois, and feels extremely lucky to have a world-class pianist as his mother, coach and collaborator. He is eager to continue creating new music and arrangements for the trumpet in chamber music settings and in venues outside of the concert hall.

Before graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2023, Vaughen took a year working as an AmeriCorps Intern for Spring Initiative, a nonprofit transformative after-school program in the Mississippi Delta. When he is not making music, he enjoys cooking, running, playing soccer and tennis.