Ep. 129: Kris Kwapis, ‘sterling tone’ - New York Times

Let's Talk Off The Podium

Acclaimed for her ‘sterling tone’ in the New York Times, Kris Kwapis appears regularly as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Pacific MusicWorks, Bach Collegium San Diego, Staunton Music Festival, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company, Tafelmusik, Bach Society of Minnesota, Oregon Bach Festival, Callipygian Players, Bourbon Baroque, and Lyra Baroque, making music with directors such as Andrew Parrott, Monica Huggett, Alexander Weimann, Barthold Kuijken, Matthew Halls, Jacques Ogg, and Masaaki Suzuki. Her playing is heard on Kleos, Naxos, ReZound, Lyrichord, Musica Omnia and Dorian labels, including the 2013 GRAMMY nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and broadcast on CBC, WNYC, WQED (Pittsburgh), Portland All-Classical (KQAC), Sunday Baroque and Wisconsin Public Radio.

A student of Armando Ghitalla on modern trumpet, with a BM and MM in trumpet performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kwapis holds a DMA in historical performance from Long Island’s Stony Brook University. She often lectures on historical brass performance practice with appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of Wyoming, University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Louisville, Madison Early Music Festival, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle Recorder Society, and Rutgers University, in addition to writing program notes and delivering pre-concert lectures. On modern trumpet, Kris was adjunct professor of trumpet at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY from 2000-2010 and taught as a sabbatical replacement at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA for the fall semester of 2019.

Dr. Kwapis enjoys sharing her passion with the next generation of performers as a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute (baroque trumpet and cornetto) since 2010 in addition to teaching at her home in Seattle and online. When not making music, Kris explores the visual art medium of encaustic painting, cooking and gardening.