Collection: Luke Spence

Based in Baltimore, MD, Dr. Luke Spence enjoys a career performing and teaching in the DMV metropolitan area. He serves as second trumpet of the Washington Chamber Orchestra and is a member of the award-winning chamber group Anima Brass. As a freelance orchestral musician, he performs with other groups including the Fairfax Symphony, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Washington Opera Society, Lancaster Symphony, Reading Symphony, and The New Orchestra of Washington. Outside of mainstream classical music, Spence has performed with Baltimore and Washington D.C. theatre companies, toured with the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, played on period instruments with the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble and The Choral Arts Society of Washington, and performed new works by living composers with groups such as Stage Free and the District New Music Coalition. In recent years he has performed at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, toured across the U.S., Europe, and China, and was a featured soloist with the Washington Sinfonietta

A passionate educator, Dr. Spence is on faculty at both Frostburg State University and Frederick Community College. He also maintains a large private studio and regularly gives clinics and masterclasses at universities and other public institutions. In 2020 he initiated and served as director for a new brass ensemble and repertoire course at the University of Maryland School of Music, which continues to thrive and grow to this day.

His acclaimed dissertation, Preserving the Narrative of 20th Century Art Song: A Guide for Instrumental Transcriptions of Vocal Music informs and elevates performance practice standards for brass players who wish to perform vocal music. Through the incorporation of subtitle translations along with deep research into the relationships between text and music, Spence offers a sonic landscape designed to bring listeners on a poetic journey without uttering a single word. He earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music at the University of Maryland School of Music where he studied with Chris Gekker and holds a Bachelor of Music with a minor in musicology from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Roy Poper and was the recipient of the 2014 James Stamp Award.

For more information about Luke, please visit www.lukespencetrumpet.com.