Brian Winegardner currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Trumpet at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC, having joined the faculty in 2022. He previously was Adjunct Professor of Trumpet and Director of the Brass Ensemble at Limestone University from 2017 to 2024. His private students at the collegiate level have consistently found success either as band directors or with continued graduate studies, while his private students at the high school level have regularly gained acceptance to collegiate music programs and achieved admittance to respected institutions such as the Youth Orchestras of Charlotte and the Governor’s School of North Carolina’s summer music program.
An active orchestral performer, Dr. Winegardner currently holds the position of Second/Associate Principal Trumpet with the Knoxville Symphony and is a member of the newly created Knoxville Symphony Brass Quintet, which performs educational and chamber music concerts in eastern Tennessee. He is also Second/Associate Principal Trumpet of the South Carolina Philharmonic (Columbia, SC), Principal Trumpet of the Augusta Symphony (Augusta, GA), and a regular extra/substitute musician with the Charlotte Symphony. In the past, he has been a trumpet section member of the Charlotte Symphony (Charlotte, NC), the Miami Symphony (Miami, FL), and the Saginaw Bay Symphony (Saginaw, MI). Additionally, he has performed with and been on the substitute list for many orchestras throughout the United States, including the Seattle Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Orlando Philharmonic, New World Symphony, and Florida Grand Opera. He has participated in performances with musicians such as Helmuth Rilling, Keith Lockhart, Andrea Bocelli, Giancarlo Guerrero, Arturo Sandoval, Tim Morrison, Sam Pilafian, Ben Folds, Natalie Cole, and Kenny G.
As a recipient of the UM Fellowship (one of the highest awards offered by the University of Miami Graduate School), Dr. Winegardner was awarded his DMA in Trumpet Performance from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. His dissertation, “A Performer’s Guide to Concertos for Trumpet and Orchestra by Lowell Liebermann and John Williams,” has been downloaded over 9,500 times by readers across the globe and has been cited in numerous subsequent scholarly works. He has Master of Music and Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers have included Craig Morris, William Campbell, and Jean Moorhead Libs. He has had additional studies with Barbara Butler, James Wilt, Robert Sullivan, Mark Hughes, Mark Niehaus, and John Rommel.