That's Not Spit, It's Condensation‪!‬ Ryan Beach

Dr. Joseph Gray is the Associate Director of Bands and trumpet instructor at the University of North Alabama. Before coming to Florence, he served on the music faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and as a noncommissioned officer and senior instrumentalist with the U.S. Army Music Program. During his military service, Dr. Gray was a member of the Army Material Command Band at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama and the Maneuver Center of Excellence Band at Fort Benning, Georgia.
     Dr. Gray is principal trumpet with the Shoals Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with the Huntsville and Chattanooga Symphony Orchestras. He has performed with numerous orchestras across the country, including the New Mexico and Madison Symphony Orchestras and held the position of Principal Trumpet with Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Gray was also a featured soloist with the UNA Baroque Ensemble’s tour of Costa Rica in the Spring of 2019. Some of Dr. Gray’s recordings can be heard on the Naxos label and his performances have been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program “Performance Today”.
     He has been involved in the drum corps activity for 25 years. As a performer, he was a member of the Velvet Knights and Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. As an educator, he has served as the brass caption head of Esperanza Drum and Bugle Corps and as a member of the educational staffs for the Academy and Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps.
     Dr. Gray completed his DMA in trumpet performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music where he was a recipient of the Eugene M. Bolz Fellowship. Dr. Gray completed his Master of Music at the University of New Mexico and his Bachelor of Music at the California State University, Long Beach.  
     He currently resides in Florence, Alabama with his beautiful wife, Michelle, and their three children, Mia, Emmet and Abigail. Dr. Gray is a vintage motorcycle enthusiast and avid home coffee roaster.
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Ben Gunnarson is a trumpet player and music educator based in Los Angeles, California. He is currently Principal Trumpet of the Bay Philharmonic and also is a member of the Disneyland Band. After growing up in Frederick, MD, he earned is Bachelor’s Degrees in Trumpet Performance and Music Education from Indiana University and is pursuing his Masters Degree at the University of Southern California under the mentorship of Thomas Hooten and Jennifer Marotta. He also studied abroad in Vienna, Austria with Vienna Philharmonic trumpet player Rudolph Amon. Mr. Gunnarson was a Fellow and Teaching Assistant at the 2023 Brevard Summer Music Festival and participated in the 2022 National Brass Ensemble Academy at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Other notable teaching experiences include the Bluecoats, The Company, the Santa Clara Vanguard, the USC Trojan Marching Band, Tonebase, Disney Performing Arts, and the Disney Youth Education Series.
Mr. Gunnarson’s performing credits include the Tony® and Emmy® winning broadway production of BLAST! The Music of Disney, the LA Film Conducting Institute Studio Orchestra, Seth MacFarlane Big Band, the American Youth Symphony, California Young Artists Symphony, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Oakland Symphony, Cinematic Brass, the Disneyland All-American College Band, the Disneyland Candlelight Herald Trumpets, the San Francisco Wind Ensemble, and in productions of West Side Story, Dreamgirls, South Pacific, Mack and Mabel, and Cabaret. He is active in the L.A. recording studios, including Warner Brothers Studios, Fox Studios, Capital Records, EastWest Records, and Evergreen Studios. Mr. Gunnarson has been involved with Drum Corps International since 2013 as a performing member of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps including their championship season, as well as their 2022 Alumni Corps. In 2023, his trumpet quintet achieved first place at the National Trumpet Competition representing the University of Southern California. Most recently, he was selected to be a member of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C. 
Ben maintains a large private teaching studio and is an active freelancer in LA, and currently serves as Vice President and Co-Founder of the Los Angeles Brass Alliance. The group has world-premiered over 30 new works for brass ensemble, and provides inclusive educational and fellowship opportunities for emerging professional musicians across the L.A. region. He lives in Buena Park with his fiancé Elizabeth, who is an exquisite tuba player, and their cat, Avery. 
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Daniel Carson comes to the CSO after previously holding the position of principal bass at the Alabama Symphony Orchestra from 2013-16, and having performed with numerous other American orchestras, including those in Atlanta, St. Louis, Minnesota and Kansas City.
Carson was a fellow at the New World Symphony, under the direction of co-founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson-Thomas and has also been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Music Academy of the West, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Originally from Glenview, Illinois, Carson studied double bass with Andrew Anderson, a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Grant Park orchestras. He was a member of the youth music program Midwest Young Artists Conservatory throughout high school.
Carson earned a Bachelor’s degree in performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Lawrence Hurst and Bruce Bransby. Later he earned a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California, studying with David Allen Moore of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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Wiff Rudd began teaching trumpet and serving as Brass Area Coordinator at Baylor University in 2002. Previous teaching posts include Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Arkansas. A founding member of Rhythm & Brass, he is also an active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. He has been a featured soloist in Carnegie Hall on multiple occasions and at several National Trumpet Competitions and International Trumpet Guild Conferences. Rudd has performed and presented master classes at more than 350 universities and music festivals on five continents. He serves as principal trumpet with the Waco Symphony and performs regularly with the orchestras of Houston (Moscow 2012), Dallas (Europe 2013 and 2016), and Harrisburg. Baylor’s trumpet ensembles have won six prizes at the National Trumpet Competition since 2009, including three first place wins. In 2010, Rudd received the Award for Outstanding Teaching and was named the Centennial Professor, which provided funding for research in collaborative practice. The resulting book, Collaborative Practice Concepts, was released at the 2013 and has been adopted by many university trumpet studios across the country.
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Dr. Jesse Cook has been hailed by Fanfare Magazine as a trumpeter with “technical surety, a shining tone, dynamic control, a smooth legato, and real imagination.”

Dr. Cook is the Assistant Professor of Trumpet at the University of Central Florida and the Principal Trumpet of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. He has also held appointments as Principal Trumpet of the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and as the Studio Professor at Valdosta State University (GA), Pittsburg State University (KS), and Northeastern State University (OK). 

Dr. Cook received his DMA from the University of Texas at Austin. He regularly plays with The Florida Orchestra and has appeared with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Alabama Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony. Dr. Cook has also appeared as a soloist with the Brass Band of Central Florida, in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2 with the Austin Bach Cantata Project, Bernstein's Mass for Wind Ensemble and Brass Quintet with the Austin Symphonic Band, the Wind Ensemble at the University of Texas at Austin, and L'Histoire du Soldat with the Round Top Festival Orchestra Faculty.

Dr. Cook is also a founding member of the Palisade Trumpet Collective, a leading professional trumpet ensemble in the United States. PTC has commissioned several new works for trumpet ensemble and toured across Texas, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and will release its debut album, “Palisades: New Music for Trumpet Ensemble” in June 2023 on Mark Records.

A frequent recitalist and clinician, Dr. Cook has performed for and instructed students at universities across the United States of America and Europe. He is a regular judge at competitions with the International Trumpet Guild and National Trumpet Competition, has written several articles published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal and was an invited speaker at the 2019 National Trumpet Competition, the 2019 International Trumpet Guild Conference, the 2017 Georgia Music Educators Association Conference, the 2014 Texas Music Educator Association annual conference, and the 2014 International Trumpet Guild conference.
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Stephen M. Wadsack serves as the Instructor of Trumpet and director of Wright State University's Jazz Studies program offerings. In addition to his responsibilities with the trumpet studio and jazz studies, Stephen teaches courses in music history, coaches chamber music ensembles, and serves as the coordinator of the Faculty Brass Quintet. Prior to his appointment at Wright State in the Fall of 2022, Wadsack previously served on the faculties of Wilmington College (OH), Thomas More University (KY), and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). He is also a certified K-12 music educator, endorsed to teach instrumental, choral, and general music.
As a performer, Stephen regularly appears with a wide variety of ensembles throughout the tri-state area, ranging from major symphony orchestras to chamber music groups, jazz ensembles, and Baroque period performance groups. Recent credits include ensembles such as the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dayton Jazz Orchestra, Kentucky Baroque Trumpets, Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra (KY), Richmond Symphony Orchestra (IN), and Springfield Symphony Orchestra (OH). Wadsack is also in demand as a commercial/jazz trumpeter and recording artist; he can regularly be seen and heard performing in the live band at Kings Island amusement park, which entertains over 3.5 million guests over an 8-month season. Stephen has recently performed as a featured recitalist for the Troy-Hayner Center Soloist Recital Series, and as soloist with the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra (OH), Wright State University Treble Chorus, Round Lake High School Jazz Ensembles (IL), Wilmington High School Symphonic Band (OH), and the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra (WY). In the Fall of 2022, Stephen made his debut as a Guest Conductor with the North Platte District Honor Band in Casper, Wyoming.
As an academic researcher, Wadsack is published in both the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) Journal and Wyoming Windsong, the Wyoming Music Educators' Journal. In 2022, Stephen was invited to present research at both the 2022 North American Baroque Trumpet Conference and the 2022 ITG Conference; topics include a paper presentation on the trumpet nomenclature of J.S. Bach, as well as a presentation on the college audition process for prospective high school and graduate students pursuing a program in applied music. In addition to his appointment at Wright State, Wadsack maintains an active schedule as a guest artist/clinician for various high school, collegiate, and professional programs around the United States. To date, Stephen has engaged in residencies, masterclasses, and recitals at over 60 middle school, high school, and university music programs; he has also been a featured performing artist at numerous regional, state, and national music conferences.Outside of musical pursuits, Stephen enjoys connecting with friends, family, and current/former students. He is very passionate about the outdoors, hiking, fly fishing, distance running, and traveling to new places (especially National and State Parks). At home, Stephen regularly enjoys hosting board game nights, reading, all things coffee, and even brewing his own beer. He is also particularly proud of his Wyoming heritage (Go Pokes!). Stephen is happily married to his wife and "adventure partner", Casey, who is a certified social worker. Together, they have begun working to present research-based strategies on implementing trauma-informed pedagogy in the realm of higher education.
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