CANADIAN TRUMPET VIRTUOSO TO PERFORM AT USA!!

At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 25, trumpet virtuoso Paul Merkelo will perform a live concert, followed by a trumpet masterclass, in the Rehearsal Hall of USA's Laidlaw Performing Arts Center.  The concert will include "Legend" by Georges Enesco, "Im Stile von Albeniz" by Rodion Shchedrin, "Solo de concours" by Theophile Charlier and Herbert L. Clarke's transcription of the famous "Carnival of Venice Variations."

Tickets for this event will be sold at the door only. Admission is only $5 general and $3 for USA faculty & staff, USA students, youths under 18 and all senior citizens. Persons needing more information about this event or in need of special accommodation may call 251-460-7116 or 251-460-6136.

More about Mr. Merkelo

Renowned throughout North America and beyond as one of the finest trumpet players of his generation, Paul Merkelo is recognized for his "pure technical prowess" (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle) as well as his "unusual lyrical gifts" (Gramophone). As Principal Trumpeter with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1995, Merkelo is regularly praised by the Montreal press as "a spectacular soloist... a most impressive master of his instrument," (The Gazette) and as a "great virtuoso... dazzling" (La Presse). Mr. Merkelo has been featured frequently with the MSO, including tours to South America and Lincoln Center in New York City.

As soloist, Merkelo has been featured with the Rochester Philharmonic, New Orleans Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), I Musici de Montreal, Les Violins de Roy (Quebec City), Sapporo Philharmonic (Japan, with Charles Dutoit), the Thailand Philharmonic, and the U.S. Army Band. He has performed recitals and masterclasses around the world.

In 1999 Merkelo was appointed Canadian musical Ambassador to China for the inauguration of the Montreal Park in Shanghai, where he was featured as soloist with the Shanghai Broadcast Orchestra in a national telecast. He made his New York debut at Lincoln Center with the New World Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas in 1998.

Merkelo's first solo recording, A Simple Song, was released by Amberola Records and was ranked #1 in Quebec's classical recording charts for January 2000. In 2004, Analekta Records released a highly-praised second CD, Baroque Transcriptions, which was nominated by ADISQ for best classical CD of the year. In 2012 he will record a solo CD with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra of French trumpet concertos, and he will also record his first jazz CD with pianist Alain Lefevre. 

Previously, Paul Merkelo served as Principal Trumpet with the Rochester Philharmonic and New Orleans Symphony and gained early orchestral experience with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. In 1990 he worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Merkelo is on the music faculty at McGill University and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. In collaboration with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, he has created a scholarship program open to contestants of the annual MSO competition, which awards aspiring young musicians financial aid for their pursuit of a musical career.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Peter Wood, Associate Professor of Music

LPAC 1150

Department of Music

University of South Alabama 

251-460-7821 work

251-533-1208 cell

Email: pwood@jaguar1.usouthal.edu