Barbara Prugh

Described as "the finesse player", a “consummate musician”, and the "trumpetsinger", Barbara Prugh has been embracing all over many years of trumpeting throughout the Philadelphia area and beyond!

 

A Finalist in the 1983 Concert Artists' Guild Competition in New York City, she has appeared as a guest soloist with many of the Philadelphia area's top musical organizations - Concerto Soloists, Bach Festival, Philadelphia Singers, Orchestra 2001, Princeton Chamber Symphony, Delaware and Reading Symphonies, and more.

 

She has performed the premiere of several new solo compositions for solo trumpet and is well-known for her rendition of "The Trumpet Shall Sound" from Handel's MESSIAH in area churches to the stage of the Academy of Music. Most recently she commissioned a solo work by Grammy-nominated composer, Jonathan Leshnoff, and has recently premiered it.

 

When not busy as a soloist, Ms. Prugh often serves in a Principal Trumpet capacity with area orchestras, including a tour of Portugal with the Delaware Symphony in 1987 and twenty years as Principal Trumpet with the Reading Symphony.  She has also played in the Philadelphia Orchestra's trumpet section, including on an all-Respighi recording as Assistant Principal Trumpet with Ricardo Muti conducting. 

 

She has concertized extensively with FESTIVE BRASS and BRANDYWINE BRASS and has performed as part of several "celebrity concerts” during her career (i.e., Mannheim Steamroller, Luciano Pavarotti, Diana Ross, etc.). In 2011 Barbaracreated a show called "Lady With a Horn", a musical memoir of her life. She has also recorded a solo album entitled "Barbara Prugh, Trumpet Artistry”.

 

Her music-making has taken her to Europe on several occasions, including a college tour as a trumpet soloist and a trip to perform and record Arutunian's Trumpet Concerto with orchestras in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. She performed for many years as solo and principal trumpet for the White Mountain Bach Festival in New Hampshire and has been a featured soloist at several international brass conferences.

 

A native Delawarean, Barbara received her degrees from the University of Delaware (B.M.) and the Eastman School of Music (M.M.).