Peyden Shelton

Dr. J. Peyden Shelton has rapidly earned a reputation as an active clinician and performer throughout the United States and Canada.  He has been featured as a soloist with various ensembles including the Reston Symphony Orchestra, the Winds of the Blue Ridge, the Utah Wind Ensemble, and Cornell Wind Ensemble.  As a chamber and ensemble musician, he has performed with numerous groups including the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen.  He has also been a featured performer with various artists such as Pharrell Williams, Gloria Estefan, The Beach Boys, and Gloria Gaynor.  In 2014, Dr. Shelton was awarded 1st place in the Graduate Soloist Division of the National Trumpet Competition performing Joseph Turrin’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra.  Since that time, he has presented solo recitals at numerous universities and festivals including The University of North Texas, Newberry College, the University of Southern Mississippi, Tennessee Tech University, Virginia Tech Trumpet Festival, and Fredericksburg Brass Institute. Dr. Shelton is also co-founder of Fifth Bridge (fifthbridge.org), a new chamber ensemble that performs and promotes new music for fixed media and sound manipulation. They have been featured at the Virginia Tech Trumpet Festival, the Mid-Atlantic Trumpet Festival, and will be a featured performer at the 2019 Moss Center for Performing Arts’ CUBE Festival.

As an educator, Dr. Shelton currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Trumpet at the University of Utah’s School of Music. Before joining the faculty at the University of Utah, he served on the faculties at both the University of Rochester and Cornell University. His primary research is focused on the exploration and expansion of the standard corpus of repertoire for the trumpet. The recent funding through a University of Utah Dee Grant of his Trumpet Repertoire Project has created five new works for solo trumpet and piano that reflect the new voice of young modern American composers.

Dr. Shelton holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music, having studied with Professor James Thompson and Douglas Prosser.  He also holds degrees from both the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and Virginia Tech studying under Professor Craig Morris and Dr. John Adler.  Dr. Shelton is Yamaha Performing Artist and can be heard on Summit Records, SNOtone Records, as well as in the 4th edition of the Samuel Adler Orchestration Textbook by W.W. Norton & Company