Matthew Vangjel

Session: A Place for All: Why Your Community Needs a Brass Band

Matthew Vangjel is Associate Professor of Trumpet at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he teaches trumpet and coaches chamber music. Previously, he held positions at the University of Texas-San Antonio and the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Vangjel is a passionate music educator and frequently spends his free time teaching and studying pedagogy. In the summer, he can be found at LSU’s Stately Oaks Summer Camp and coaching the National Youth Brass Band of America. 

In addition to his current duties at LSU, Vangjel is an active performer locally and nationally. Currently, he is a member of the Mirari Brass Quintet (Ariel Artists) with whom he maintains an active touring schedule both in the United States and abroad. Recently, Mirari spent two weeks touring China and released its second album, renewed, reused, recycled. Vangjel is also a member of the internationally acclaimed Fountain City Brass Band (FCBB), a British-style brass band based in Kansas City, MO. He can be heard as solo flugelhorn on all of the FCBB albums and as a featured soloist on Over the Rainbow and Celtic Impressions.

Since the Fall of 2019, Vangjel has served as the principal trumpet of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony. He has been called upon as a featured soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, Northland Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. His first solo album, Still and Quiet Places, was released by Summit Records in October of 2019. 

Vangjel studied at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (DMA), the University of Michigan (MM), and James Madison University (BM- Music Education). His primary teachers include Keith Benjamin, Bill Campbell, Jim Kluesner, and Nancy Taylor. He loves making music with his trumpet-playing wife, Jena, and family couch time with their daughter, Isla, and dog, Beaux. Geaux Tigers!