David Hickman
David Hickman is considered one of the world's pre-eminent trumpet virtuosos and has performed over 2,000 solo appearances around the world as a recitalist and guest soloist with nearly 500 different orchestras. His tours have taken him to Japan, Korea, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, France, Austria, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and virtually every major American city.
Hickman has released 15 solo albums encompassing a wide variety of repertoire - from cornet solos by Clarke, Levy, and others, to modern concerti by Planel, Baker, and Plog; from baroque works of Bach, Telemann, and Hertel, to recital pieces by Chance, Dello Joio, and Mendez.
As a noted clinician and author, Hickman has presented workshops on over 300 university campuses. He has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Rafael Mendez Brass Institute, Breman Trumpet Days, and dozens of music festivals throughout the world. He has published over 40 articles and several important texts including The Piccolo Trumpet, The Piccolo Trumpet Big Book, Trumpet Lessons with David Hickman (vols. I - V), and Music Speed Reading, a sight reading method used by hundreds of public school systems, universities and conservatories including The University of North Texas and The Juilliard School.
David Hickman received his B. M. degree at the University of Colorado in 1972. He continued graduate work at Wichita State University where he was a Graduate Trumpet Teaching Assistant for two years. He taught at the University of Illinois from 1974 to 1982 and since then has been teaching at Arizona State University where he is a Regents' Professor of Music. He has been a member of the Wichita Brass Quintet, Illinois Brass Quintet, Saint Louis Brass Quintet, Baroque Consort, and the Illinois Contemporary Chamber Players.
As an orchestral musician, Hickman performed as Principal Trumpet of the National Repertory Orchestra (1971 and 1972), Associate Principal of the Wichita Symphony (1972-1974), Principal of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra (1975), Principal, Tanglewood Fellowship Orchestra (1974), and Principal of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony (1974-1980). He has also performed with the Saint Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, and the Phoenix Symphony. His principal orchestral teachers include Adolph Herseth, Armando Ghitalla, and Roger Voisin.
Hickman is founder and president of the acclaimed Summit Brass, a large all-star American brass ensemble dubbed by the press as the “Dream Team of Brass.” Summit Brass has released 10 CDs, toured the world, and hosted the annual Rafael Mendez Brass Institute, which has helped thousands of aspiring brass musicians. He served as president of the International Trumpet Guild from 1977-1979 and has presented numerous lectures, clinics, master classes, and concerts at major international conventions. His services are sought after worldwide as a judge for prestigious solo and chamber music competitions.
Veniamin Margolin
Veniamin S.Margolin was born at 1922 in Petrograd, now again called St.Petersburg, Russia. In 1953 he graduated from the renowned Leningrad Conservatoire, where he studied with the outstanding Russian trumpeters A.Shmidt and M.Vetrov. In1944 he joined the orchestra of the Leningrad Theater of opera and ballet, now again called the Maryinsky Theater, and in 1947 he became a member of the famous Leningrad Philarmonia under Eugeny Mravinsky.
Margolin has been said to possess a powerful, brilliant and very beautiful sound. Many of his solo performances were signature examples of the so-called Russian sound. Some of the works that Margolin performed, which won him much renown, were Poem of Ecstasy by A.Scriabin, Alpine Symphony, Ein Heldenleben, and Also sprach Zaratustra by R.Strauss, Symphonia "Harmony of the World" by Paul Hindemith, almost all the symphonies of Dimitri Shostakovich, Gustrav Mahler, and Scriabin, selections from operas by Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, and the ballets of Stravinsky. When he performed the difficult Symphony No. 8 of Shostakovich in London in 1960, he received considerable attention and praise from Maestro Karajan who was in attendance. Igor Stravinsky gave high review about Margolin’s performance of his Octet in Leningrad in 1962. And also was praised by S. Prokofiev and M. Rostropovich after the premiere Concert-Symphony for cello with orchestra. English conductor Malkolm Sardjent wrote about Margolin, he is "the best trumpet player in modern orchestras in the world"
Veniamin Margolin is an Honored Artist of Trumpet in Russia. He is currently Professor of Trumpet at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire.
James Olcott
James Olcott is a native of Berkeley, California. He earned his undergraduate music degree from San Francisco State University and his masters in trumpet performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York where his trumpet teachers included William Vacchiano and Mel Broiles.
He has been on the music faculty of Miami University (Ohio) since 1978, before which he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and at Fort Hays State University (Kansas). He is currently principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra and the Middletown (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra,
Mr. Olcott is an active free-lancer performing in both jazz and classical idioms throughout the Cincinnati-Dayton area in large and small group settings. In addition, he is the founder and music director of the Cincinnati Herald Trumpet Ensemble.
Also active as a composer and arranger, Olcott has been interested in trumpet ensemble literature for many years, and has written many successful compositions and arrangements written for the Miami University Trumpet Ensemble. His works are published by Crown Music Press of Chicago, Tromba Publications of Denver, and by his own publishing firm, Triplo Press, which he began in 1991.
He is also very active in the International Trumpet Guild, in which he has served many capacities, including the organization’s president, vice-president, and secretary, and is currently serving on the Editorial Committee of the International Trumpet Guild Journal, acting as coordinator for the Guild’s annual CD projects, and is the chair of the Ellsworth/Smith International Solo Trumpet Competition.
He has been a member of the faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan since 1979 and has taught, performed as principal trumpet, and conducted student and faculty jazz ensembles. He has been involved on and off for the last 20 years as conductor of the Blue Lake International Jazz Ensemble for its three-week European tours to Belgium, Austria, Germany, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, and served as a member of the Blue Lake in Bavaria faculty as director of its international jazz ensemble.
At Miami University he serves as chair of the Jazz Ensemble Program, conducts the school’s two trumpet ensembles, teaches trumpet and is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Music Department internet website. He is also the founder of Miami's annual Southwestern Ohio High School Jazz Festival.
