Trumpet
Paul Merkelo has been principal trumpet for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1995 and held the same position with the Rochester Philharmonic and New Orleans Symphony. His early orchestral experience was as an extra with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. In 1990 he worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center and was awarded the Speth Scholarship for outstanding orchestral musician at his alma mater, the Eastman School of Music, where he also won the concerto competition.
In 1999 Mr. Merkelo was sent as a Canadian musical ambassador to China for the inauguration of Montreal Park in Shanghai, and was the featured soloist on a nationally televised concert with the Shanghai Broadcast Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, including the premieres of three concerti written for him, and on tour in South America and New York.
Mr. Merkelo has also been featured with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, I Musici de Montréal, Les Violons du Roy of Quebec City, the Rochester Philharmonic, the New Orleans Symphony, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician numerous times with the American Chamber Orchestra in France, and has served on the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, with Charles Dutoit. In 1998 he made his New York debut at Lincoln Center with the New World Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Mr. Merkelo is on the music faculty at McGill University. In collaboration with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, he has created a scholarship program for aspiring young musicians.
His recording Baroque Transcriptions was recently nominated for classical (small ensemble) disc of the year in Quebec. During the summer of 2005 he was featured at the International Trumpet Guild Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, and performed with and was a faculty member for the Youth Orchestra of the Americas in Venezuela.
He has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2005.