Trumpet
Brass Family
Trumpets are the smallest, highest instrument of the brass family and often get the spotlight with their bright melodies and brilliant fanfares. Like all brass instruments, you play the trumpet by buzzing your lips and blowing air through a mouthpiece. This sends vibrations through the tubing of the instrument and out the end, or bell. Your left hand holds the instrument while your right hand operates the valves.
Artists
Principal Trumpet Manny Laureano, who joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1981 after four years as principal with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, has performed solos in all the Orchestra’s concert series and served as an assistant conductor during the 2005-06 season. In 1983 he performed the American premiere of the Wildgans Concerto for Trumpet with Leonard Slatkin conducting. In 2003 he premiered Stephen Paulus’ Concerto for Two Trumpets and Orchestra, which was written for him and Doc Severinsen, who was then the Orchestra’s principal pops conductor. His other solos with the Orchestra have included trumpet concertos by Hummel and Haydn, Copland’s Quiet City, Clarke’s Southern Cross, Vizzutti’s Compadre, Hertel’s Concerto a cinque in D major, Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto, and concertos by Arutunian and Tomasi. Most recently, he was featured as the co-soloist in the Concerto for Piano and Trumpet No. 1 by Shostakovich.
Douglas C. Carlsen joined the Minnesota Orchestra as associate principal trumpet in 1999, after holding the principal trumpet post with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and since has been featured here in Sommerfest chamber music performances and performances of Copland’s Quiet City, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Sibelius' Overture for Brass Septet, among others. He has served as acting associate principal with the San Francisco Symphony and performed with the San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Sun Valley Music Festival and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Robert Dorer joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1997 as second trumpet after six seasons as principal trumpet with the New Mexico Symphony. He previously was a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica and Florida West Coast Symphony, and performed as guest principal with the New Zealand Symphony. He has performed as soloist with orchestras in Florida, North Carolina, New Mexico and Minnesota. During the 2013-14 season he performed with the National Symphony Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Dorer performed and recorded for five years as a member of the Florida Brass Quintet. He has often performed in Orchestra chamber concerts, playing works of Hindemith, Boehme and Scheidt, among others. In 2005 he performed trumpet ensemble music with Adolph Herseth and Doc Severinsen at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Trumpet Festival.
Trumpeter Charles Lazarus is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra and a multi-faceted musician who has charted a unique course as performer, composer, producer and band leader. His career has included tenures in several of the best-known brass ensembles in the world, including Dallas Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemble and Canadian Brass.
As a soloist, composer and bandleader, Lazarus has created four original crossover orchestral programs featuring his various ensembles: “A Night in the Tropics,” “American Riffs,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and most recently “The New American Songbook” featuring the Grammy Award-winning family vocal quintet The Steeles. On “Merry & Bright,” his annual program of fresh takes on holiday favorites, Lazarus is joined by vocalists, a children’s choir and an all-brass big band.