Amy Gilreath

Bio

Amy Gilreath has won the respect and praise of musicians and audiences the world over for her beautiful sound and expressive interpretations. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to perform in Cuba, Italy, Mexico, Russia, England and given multiple other performances throughout Europe as well as appearances at International Trumpet Guild Conferences and International Women’s Brass Conferences. Amy is also a member of Monarch Brass Ensemble, the Consortium Brass Quintet and a past member of the Monarch Brass Quintet, Dallas Brass, Velvet Brass, Battle Creek Brass Band and Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band.  She has performed with many renowned musicians including Doc Severinsen, former band leader of the Tonight Show Band with Johnny Carson; Italian jazz trumpet artist Andrea Tofanelli.  Ron Romm, founding member of the Canadian Brass; and jazz trumpet artist Marvin Stamm.  Serving as Principal Trumpet of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra since 1999, Amy also holds the Co-Principal Trumpet position with Sinfonia da Camera. In addition, she has also performed as an extra and a sub with the St. Louis Symphony.  Amy can also be heard on her solo CD Enjoying Life and on various Sinfonia da Camera recordings released by Albany Records. She has also been a featured artist in the highly acclaimed international brass magazine The Brass Herald.

As a founding member and trumpeter of Stiletto Brass Quintet, Amy and the group has given performances at the Festival de Música de Cámara de Aguascalientes Mexico, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Northeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference, and toured throughout the United States. Stiletto has also been guest artist with the Bradenton-Sarasota Pops Orchestra as well as the Heartland Festival Orchestra and released two recordings: Stiletto Brass Quintet with Doc Severinsen and Scarpe !.

In demand as a pedagogue, Amy has taught masterclasses at Penn State University, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee, and throughout the United States, and at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Conservatoire of Bordeaux in France.  Currently, she is a long-standing faculty member of Orvieto Musica, a chamber music festival held in Orvieto Italy and the Director of the festival’s Trumpet Fest. Amy has published articles in the Brass Herald and the International Trumpet Guild Journal. Her doctoral research paper, A Descriptive Study of Selected Trumpet Concertos of the Soviet Union, included a lengthy bibliography of trumpet concertos from there and introduced these concertos to the trumpet community at large.  Amy currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Women’s Brass Conference and has served twice on the Board of Directors for the International Trumpet Guild.

After receiving her Doctor of Musical Arts and a Masters in Performance from the University of Illinois, Amy was one of the few women to hold a full time university trumpet professor position in the 1990’s, and the first woman trumpet professor at Illinois State University. Then in 2019 Dr. Gilreath retired as Professor Emeritus of Trumpet at Illinois State University after serving on the faculty since 1990. During her time there she was the first faculty member to be awarded the Illinois State University Outstanding Creative Arts Award for her numerous national and international performances as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral musician and many publications in international journals.  She was also a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the School of Music.

Her teachers include Ray Sasaki, Michael Tunnell, Vincent DiMartino, Rich Illman, Arnold Jacobs and Susan Slaughter.