Miami University Trumpet Studio

JAMES L. OLCOTT

A BIOGRAPHY
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Office: 225 Presser Hall Phone: 513/523-5836 Email: olcottj@muohio.edu
Professor of Trumpet, MIami University, Oxford, Ohio USA
•	M.M., Trumpet Performance, Manhattan School of Music, 1968
•	B.M., Trumpet Performance and Music Education, San Francisco State University, 1966
•	Recipient, A.K. Morris Alumni Award, MU Alumni Association, 2011
•	Recipient, Award of Merit, International Trumpet Guild (ITG), 2005
•	Runner-Up, Crossan Hays Curry Distinguished Educator, 2004
•	President, International Trumpet Guild, 1999-2001
	•	Member, ITG Board of Directors, 2003-2015
	•	Member, ITG Journal Editorial Review Committee, 2003-present
	•	Coordinator, ITG CD Projects, 2004-present
	•	Coordinator, Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo Competition, 2005-2010
Teachers include William Adam, Joseph Alessi, Sr., Edwin Betts, Mel Broiles, Cecil Collins, Robert Hansen, Donald Reinberg, and William Vacchiano.
James Olcott is a native of Berkeley, California. Prior to his coming to Miami University in 1978, he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Fort Hays State University (Kansas). He recently retired after 25 years as principal trumpet of the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra and the Middletown (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, and has had previous experience in that role with the Tidewater Music Festival (Maryland), the Peter Britt Music Festival (Oregon), the International Festival at Round-Top, Texas, among others. His orchestral background also includes performances with the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Companies, and the Metropolitan Opera Company (New York). He is an active free-lancer well-versed in piccolo trumpet, the other small trumpets, and B-flat and flugelhorn concepts and styles, and perform professionally in those 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. He is also active as a composer and arranger. Compositions and arrangements written for the Miami University Trumpet Ensemble have been published by Crown Music Press of Chicago, Tromba Publications of Denver, and by his own publishing firm, Triplo Press. He is also an active member of the International Trumpet Guild, the group for which he has served terms as secretary, vice president, and president. In 2005 he was a recipient of the Guild's Award of Merit. From 1979 to 2008 Olcott was a member of the faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Twin Lake, Michigan, where he taught, performed as principal trumpet with, and conducted student and faculty jazz ensembles. Beginning in 1982 he was involved as conductor of the camp's 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. He retired from touring after his final sojourn in 2008. At Miami University he conducts Miami's internationally recognized trumpet ensemble and, of course, teaches trumpet. He is the founder of Miami's annual Southwestern Ohio High School Jazz Festival, which was held annually on the MU-Oxford campus for 31 years, finishing in 2010. For his work with the jazz festival, he was honored by the City of Oxford, with April 7, 2008 being officially named *James L. Olcott Jazz Day* in Oxford by proclamation by the city's mayor. He is also the recipient of the A.K. Morris Award, given in 2011 by the Miami University Alumni Association for his long-time work in organizing and conducting the alumni gatherings of the famed MU student jazz band at MU during the 30's to the 60's, the Campus Owls. Since 1993, he has become increasingly involved with website design and is now responsible for the website for the Miami Univeristy Department of Music.

ABOUT JAMES OLCOTT