Matthew Vangjel

Recital: Still & Quiet Places

Matthew Vangjel is the Assistant 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 at camps and studying pedagogy.

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 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. 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.

As an orchestral musician Vangjel has performed with the Alabama Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Mobile Symphony, the 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.

Vangjel studied at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Michigan, and James Madison University. His primary teachers include Keith Benjamin, Bill Campbell, Jim Kluesner, and Nancy Taylor. He loves making music with his trumpet-playing wife, Jena, and couch time with their dog, Beaux.