Micah Killion

Youth Session: Trumpet Practice Playbook

Dr. Micah Killion is the former principal trumpet of the United States Air Force Band in Washington DC, where he served from 2013-2018 and recorded 7 albums. The last of which, Illuminations, released in 2018, features him as a soloist on John Mackey’s Antique Violences. He can be heard playing on two recent recordings of the music of Du Yun: the Pulitzer-winning chamber opera “Angel’s Bone”, and the Grammy-nominated trumpet ensemble “Air Glow”. Among others, Micah has performed or recorded with the Knights Orchestra, Barclay Brass, Diana Ross, Shakira, Father John Misty, the Colorado Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Walt Disney World’s Christmas Brass, and various Broadway shows.

Micah has given master classes at over 20 colleges and universities including The Colburn School, Florida State University, University of Oregon, University of Texas Austin, Bowling Green State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2017, he partnered with the Ramallah Orchestra and the al-Kamandjati School in Ramallah to perform around the West Bank. In 2019 he was awarded a Rainwater Grant for American Music, to bring instruments and brass instruction to a school for homeless boys in Kathmandu, Nepal. Micah is the coordinator of the new Musical Lives Initiative at the Center for Music Learning at UT Austin, where his research explores the cognitive and perceptual-motor processes underpinning music learning. He holds a Ph.D. in Music and Human Learning from UT Austin, an MA in Music Education from Teachers College at Columbia University, and a BM in trumpet performance from the Juilliard School where he studied with Philip Smith.