Born: May 10, 1978 Primary Instrument: Trumpet
As a multi-genre trumpeter and composer, Charlie Porter takes an all-encompassing approach to music that's beginning to make a name for him on the local music scene as well as abroad.
In 2006, Charlie and his quartet were chosen by Jazz @ Lincoln Center and The State Department to perform as Jazz Ambassadors throughout West Africa as part of JALC’s Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad Program. Through the same program, Charlie later performed with an “All-Star” quartet, which toured extensively in India, China and Africa. In 2006, Mr. Porter was commissioned by Chamber Music America and The Doris Duke Foundation to compose a piece, “The Buddy Bolden Suite”, for his septet, which was then premiered at The Jazz Gallery and JALC’s Dizzy’s Club to sold-out crowds.
Charlie has performed and recorded with such notable musicians as Paquito D’Rivera, David Taylor, Kenny Drew Jr., Peter Erskine, Daniel Schnyder, Ira Sullivan, David Liebman and Lew Soloff, to name a few. He is a core member of The Absolute Ensemble, and tours extensively as solo trumpet with the electro-acoustic crossover chamber orchestra, which performs at major venues worldwide including recent appearances at the Sydney Opera House, Koln Philharmonie, London Barbican, the Estonia Concert Hall, and residencies at Bremen and Adelaide Festivals.
A native of Florida, Charlie moved to New York in 1996 to receive his formal classical musical training at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied privately with Wynton Marsalis, Raymond Mase and Mark Gould. As a freshman he won first place in the Quadrennial Juilliard Trumpet Concerto Competition and later performed as a soloist with The Juilliard Symphony. While at Juilliard, Charlie was one of eighteen students invited to attend the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Colony in the summer of 1998 and was later a featured artist on the nationally broadcast “BET on Jazz” cable network. Following his studies at Juilliard, he then studied for one year at The Paris Conservatory as a Fulbright Scholar with the French, master-trumpeter, Guy Touvron. Charlie later received his Master’s of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, under the private tutelage of Laurie Frink and Gary Dial.
Among the many awards to his credit, he was the first ever to be awarded 1st Prize in the National Trumpet Competition in both Jazz and Classical divisions and was recently a competitor in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition in Los Angeles.
