Kris Kwapis regularly collaborates as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Bach Collegium San Diego, Staunton Music Festival, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Montana Early Music Festival, and Bourbon Baroque. Her playing is heard on Kleos, Naxos, ReZound, Lyrichord, Musica Omnia and Dorian labels, and broadcast on CBC, WNYC, WQED (Pittsburgh), Portland All-Classical (KQAC), Sunday Baroque and Wisconsin Public Radio. A student of Armando Ghitalla on modern trumpet, with a BM and MM in trumpet performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kwapis also holds a DMA in historical performance from Stony Brook University.
On modern trumpet, she was a professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY for a decade and taught at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA for the fall 2019 semester as a sabbatical replacement. Kris enjoys sharing her passion of exploring historical performance with the next generation of performers and teachers as a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute since 2010 in addition to teaching at her home in Seattle and online. When not playing, writing, speaking or thinking about music, she is active as a visual artist in the encaustic medium, an avid cook, home remodeler, and aspiring gardener.
