Geoff Stevens

Born in the far north-east of England, near Newcastle upon Tyne, Geoff’s first love of the Trumpet came as a child, playing old 78 rpm recordings of Harry James (relentlessly – according to his parents) on an old “wind-up” gramophone player.

It was some years later that Geoff had the opportunity to learn an instrument. He instantly took to the trumpet, with the kind of enthusiasm reserved only for teenagers on a quest, and eventually studied with the late Bernard Brown at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

Geoff worked as a freelance trumpet player and teacher for many years, playing regularly in the UK, and occasionally in Europe, primarily with the Northern Sinfonia of England, and guest performing with many regional and national groups (often as they sojourned in the wild and untamed north of England), including: Scottish Opera; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Royal Ballet, London Festival Ballet; Royal Opera Company, English National Opera North, Royal Shakespeare Company, Oxford Pro Musica and others.

Geoff has had the honor of playing for a number of prestigious conductors including Sir Charles Groves, Sir Neville Marriner, Norman Delmar and Vernon Handley.

Geoff’s musical activities have not always been so “classical”. Nurturing his childhood exposure to jazz, he was a founder member of a Dixieland band in high school and his first professional work was as a teenager, playing in dance bands at local night clubs, requiring him to join the British Musicians’ Union at the tender age of seventeen.

Geoff was also heavily involved in teaching while living in the UK and frequently conducted local area youth orchestras and concert bands in part of the same system from which he had received his first trumpet lessons.

Retiring from full-time trumpet playing in 1991, Geoff moved to the USA and took a “respectable” day job.

Geoff has been playing principal trumpet with the Salt Lake Symphony since 1993. He also plays with the Wasatch Brass – an Intermountain West based Brass Quintet, and with Utah Premiere Brass – a “British style” brass band based in Utah County.