Daniel D’Addio is a trumpet teacher, performer, conductor, and Professor Emeritus of Music whose career spans higher education, chamber music, orchestral performance, and international solo appearances. He is a trumpet instructor and chamber music coach in the Collegiate Division of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, a Suzuki Brass instructor in trumpet, horn, trombone, and low brass, traditional trumpet instructor, and chamber music coach in the Hartt School Community Division, and a trumpet instructor and chamber music coach at Central Connecticut State University. He also serves as Conductor of the Charter Oak Brass Band and is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Wedge Mouthpiece Endorsing Artist.
Dr. D’Addio’s teaching and conducting are grounded in an extensive performance career that includes solo, chamber, and orchestral work in the United States and abroad.
Dr. D’Addio is active as a trumpet soloist and chamber musician. He has concertized throughout the United States and Europe, appearing on concert series in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Vienna, Geneva, and Salzburg. As a chamber musician, he served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Bay View Music Festival. As a soloist, he won several international and national competitions, including the 1981 International Music Competition in Geneva, Switzerland, the 1980 International Trumpet Guild Student Solo Competition, and the 1984 Queens Philharmonic Concerto Competition.
Formerly a member of Brass Ring, Dr. D’Addio performed concerts throughout the United States and Europe and participated in chamber music master classes at major American universities. He was instrumental in commissioning and premiering works by several Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, including Jacob Druckman, Ned Rorem, David del Tredici, and Christopher Rouse. With Brass Ring, he was a prizewinner at the 1989 Philip Jones International Brass Chamber Music Competition in Barcs, Hungary. He also participated in chamber music residencies at the University of Bridgeport and The Hartt School and recorded with the brass quintet on the Crystal label.
Orchestrally, Dr. D’Addio has performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, Flint Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra New England, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. D’Addio is Professor Emeritus of Music at Central Connecticut State University. He has served on the faculties of The University of Georgia, Otterbein College, The Neighborhood Music School, Western Connecticut State University, the University of Bridgeport, and Branford High School in Connecticut, and has assisted in the trumpet studios of The University of Michigan and The Ohio State University. He has conducted master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States and has served as an adjudicator and clinician in a variety of musical and educational settings.
Daniel D’Addio holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music degree from The Ohio State University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. He also studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz and Vienna, Austria, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, as a Fulbright Scholar. His principal teachers are Robert Nagel, Dr. Richard Burkart, and Armando Ghitalla.
Student learning is far more important than teaching. Student learning promotes an active role in their education as contrasted to a passive role created from the “traditional” teacher-centered model dominated by lecture. An active role allows students to possess their educational path and promotes life-long scholarship that extends the learning process well beyond graduation.
It is my mission to:
- Create an environment that promotes student learning;
- Provide opportunities for exploration, research, and synthesis of musical concepts as well as ancillary perspectives related to each concept;
- Present opportunities of resonance for each student to participate actively in their education; and
- Teach through shepherding students to wisdom and nurturing their education with compassion.