Trumpet performer and educator John-Thomas Burson has pursued his passion for music across a diversity of arenas, including performances with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Georgia Brass Band, Harrower Opera Institute, Spectacle Brass, and most recently the New York-based quintet, Anima Brass. Recently selected as a New Horizons Fellow at the 2015 Aspen Music Festival, he has appeared at the National Trumpet Competition, National Brass Symposium, Crested Butte Music Festival, Bay View Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and Bar Harbor Brass Week. In 2014, he was the winner of the International Trumpet Guild Sonare Pro Brass Scholarship. Burson holds a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) in Performance from Kennesaw State University, where he studied with Thomas Hooten, Michael Tiscione, Douglas Lindsey, Karin Bliznik, and Jennifer Marotta. He currently resides in New York where he is pursuing his Master of Music (M.M.) in Performance at Stony Brook University.
Featured as soloist with several orchestras, Burson recently performed Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto with the Kennesaw State University Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a cornet soloist with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra for an audience of over 4,000. Additional solo engagements include John Adams’ Tromba Lontana and the Concerto by Hummel.
Burson’s devotion to chamber music has been an integral part of the strategic expansion of Atlanta’s Spectacle Brass Quintet. Over several years, the brass quintet has broken into the national scene, performing at Michigan’s Bay View Music Festival and alongside the Boston Brass during the 2013 Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado. The group recently received an invitation to perform at the Georgia Music Educators Association In-Service Convention and was a finalist in the Calvin Smith Brass Quintet Competition in Knoxville, Tennessee. Committed to outreach, Spectacle Brass collaborated with a local high school to present the Suite from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and presented a benefit program for Children’s Healthcare of Augusta, Georgia.
With an interest in all genres, John-Thomas has recorded and performed with various rock, pop, and contemporary groups, including Ryan Snow and the Bandits, A-Town A-List, Greg Howlett Orchestra, and Johnny Cash Returns. For two consecutive years, he was selected as Principal Trumpet in the Georgia Music Educators Association All-College Band in Savannah, Georgia. He was also a finalist in the National Brass Symposium Orchestral Excerpts Competition and performed at the 2015 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Burson performs on Yamaha, Bach, and Schilke trumpets. For more information, please visit his website and blog, johnthomasburson.com.
[2015]