Dave Chisholm
"As soon as I played my Adams A4 trumpet, I knew it was the last trumpet I would ever need. This horn lets me sound like myself! It is a wonderful instrument."
Dave Chisholm is a trumpet player, composer, bandleader and educator currently residing in Rochester, NY, where he is currently pursuing his DMA in Jazz Studies from the Eastman School of Music. He has both his BM and MM from the University of Utah, where, under the direction of Henry Wolking, he performed internationally with the University of Utah Jazz Ensemble I and directed the University of Utah Jazz Ensemble II.
As a trumpet player, Dave has garnered international acclaim. In 2009, he was one of two recipients of the Downbeat Student Music Award for outstanding collegiate soloist. He has also received numerous accolades and awards at both the Reno Jazz Festival and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival. In 2004, Dave performed as a soloist with the Vanemuise Symphony Orchestra on a concert tour through Estonia. He is equally adept in both the jazz and commercial music fields. His trumpet playing can be heard on the NBA on ABC television broadcasts, on Josh Groban's DVD *Awake Live*, on the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra's five albums, on the two albums by the jazz sextet John Henry, and on his own releases *Radioactive* and *Calligraphy*. He has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Stefon Harris, Paquito D'Rivera, Josh Groban, Charlie Hunter, Mike Clark, Stanton Moore, Clay Jenkins, Bobby McFerrin, Roy Hargrove, Bobby Shew, Bill Holman, Karl Denson, and Mannheim Steamroller.
Dave Chisholm's Adams Gear
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As soon as I played my Adams A4 trumpet, I knew it was the last trumpet I would ever need. This horn lets me sound like myself! It is a wonderful instrument.
— Dave Chisholm
In 2009, Dave released Radioactive, his first album as a leader. The album consists of five original compositions for large jazz ensemble: Radioactive, Behind the Mask, The Jiggler, In the Belly of the Sun, and Montana. His large ensemble work has also appeared on five albums by the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra. In 2003, Dave was the first recipient of the Utah Arts Festival Jazz Composer Commission, which led to the piece Two Days on a Bus. In December 2009, his most recent work, a stunning reimagining of the timeless jazz standard Alone Together, was performed by the renowned Eastman Jazz Ensemble.
Much of Dave’s small ensemble music blends jazz with indie rock, as heard on the two albums by John Henry—no surprise given his deep involvement in the indie-rock world. From 2005 to 2007, Dave toured with Utah-based indie-rock band The Brobecks. In addition to his unique keyboard playing, he contributed as a composer. His song Aeroplanes received substantial radio play in Utah. His latest project, Calligraphy, fuses cinematic rock and film-score textures with the improvisational spirit of jazz.
Dave has extensive experience as a bandleader. His soul-jazz group Quadraphonic was a fixture in Salt Lake City’s bar scene from 2000 to 2007. In 2002, he formed the now-infamous Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra (SLAJO), a fifteen-piece jazz ensemble still performing today. From 2007 to 2010, his group John Henry played at jazz festivals across the western United States.
Dave’s true passion, however, is education. Since 2002, he has maintained a strong private teaching studio and teaches regularly via Skype. He taught the University of Utah Jazz Ensemble II for one and a half years and assisted with the Survey of Jazz course for two years. Beginning in fall 2011, Dave began teaching Beginning Jazz Theory and Improvisation at the Eastman School of Music.
Dave exclusively plays an Adams A4 trumpet in raw brass.
