Kris Kwapis

Kris Kwapis has lived in Seattle since 2008 and regularly collaborates as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival and Berwick Academy, and Staunton Music Festival. 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 Doctor of Musical Arts in historical performance from Stony Brook University. 

On modern trumpet, she was a professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY for a decade and has taught privately since she was a high school student.  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 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, and home remodeler, with her partner, Mark, supervised by our feline overlord, Baxter.  www.kriskwapis.com