Gerald Webster received his BME and MM degrees from Indiana
University. A graduate with highest distinction, he was the recipient
of a Ford Foundation Fellowship for graduate study. After declining
a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for Doctoral work he served as Solo Trumpet
with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York, as
well as performing as the founding member of the New York Brass Sextet
and as a freelance player throughout the Northeast.
Having spent one year as Professor of Trumpet at Western Illinois University, in 1970 he was invited to join the music faculty at Washington State University. As of Fall, 1994 he is now Professor of Trumpet and Coordinator of the Brass Area at Portland State University. Mr. Webster's command of the trumpet is not limited to the orchestral/band instruments one normally hears. As a collector of over 40 different trumpets, audiences are often treated to the distinctive sounds of the Monette "RAJA" or "AJNA" trumpets, the Natural "Baroque" trumpet, the German rotary valve instruments, early 20th century European flugelhorns, 19th century antique cornets, or the high pitched self-designed piccolo trumpet. Author of the important internationally recognized Method for Piccolo Trumpet; a book addressing the difficulties faced by women in the brass playing profession entitled When Will the Walls Come Tumbling Down?; and over 30 brass publications available from Hoyt Editions (Seattle, WA), Jerry has been a guest artist and lecturer at International Trumpet Symposiums held in Sweden; in Bäd Säckingen, Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany; in Mexico City, Mexico; and in St. Petersburg, Russia. He most recently completed a substantial article on Brass Embouchure for the seventh edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Jerry's newest solo CD "Gabriel's Choice" (Pro Organo) with colleague Paul Klemme contains Arias and Voluntaries for Trumpet and Organ and was recorded at the Heinz Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh in 1997. |