Katie Craighead

  • Online & In-Person

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Instruments:

  • Trumpet 

  • French Horn

  • Tuba

  • Euphonium/Baritone

  • Trombone 

  • Ukulele

  • Recorder

  • Piano 

Skills & Specialized Training:

  • Beginning through advanced trumpet

  • Beginning through 8th grade level brass

  • Music Theory (classical and jazz)

  • Classical sound concept and stylizations

  • Jazz/commercial sound concept and stylizations

  • Improvisation 

  • Sight reading

  • Ear training and transcription 

Education:

  • MM in Music Performance (trumpet) from Portland State University 

  • BA in Music Performance (trumpet) and Pre-Teaching from George Fox University with a minor in MathematicsSkills and Services:

Bio:

Katie has been playing trumpet since she was eight years old and joined school band in 6th grade. She participated in the OSAA solo contest every year through middle school and high school, placing 3rd in the state of Oregon in 2010 as a sophomore. Since she got a head start on playing, her middle school band director encouraged her to help out the other trumpet players during class. She joined the school jazz band in 7th grade and the Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra (PYJO), where she learned improv and lead playing techniques. Since then, big bands have been her favorite type of ensemble to play in. In high school she participated in Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble, in which she received the Louis Armstrong award in her senior year (2012). During her first two years at high school she played in the WBIC Thunderbird honor band her freshman and sophomore years and the OMEA All-State Jazz Band her junior and senior years. 

In 2009 Katie played in her first pit orchestra and she has played in over 30 different productions to date. During her bachelor’s program, she played in band, jazz band, orchestra, women’s choir, handbell choir and took lessons in trumpet, voice and jazz improvisation. She took all of the education classes required to teach with a bachelor’s up to part-time student teaching but realized quickly that one-on-one instruction suits her skillset much better. In grad school she focused primarily on trumpet and taught privately at the middle school where she had previously student taught. In 2019 Katie played in the show band on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship along the east coast. Nowadays she can often be heard (and occasionally seen) playing and/or singing in big bands, orchestras and theatre/cabaret productions around the Whatcom/Skagit area (and occasionally the Portland area). Along with music, Katie enjoys sewing and fiber arts, baking, cozy gaming and her favorite fictional genre is science fiction.

Influences:

Wynton Marsalis, Maynard Ferguson, Alison Bolsom, Canadian Brass, Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, Oregon Symphony, Wycliffe Gordon