Biography
22 year old American trumpeter Natalie Dungey came to international attention through her stunning performance of the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto at the National Trumpet Competition that went through the trumpet world on Youtube when she was 10. Since then she has been a featured soloist with Christopher O’Reilly on NPR’s From The Top (show #202), has premiered works for trumpet and orchestra, and been the featured soloist with orchestras and bands around the country and as far as Japan.
Written for her by Hollywood film composer and Grammy winner Mateo Messina (Soundtrack for "Juno"), Natalie performed the world premier of “Calling The Calvary” with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in Benaroya Hall, Seattle's premier concert hall with an audience of 2000. She performed the exciting work again with the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra in an outdoor concert for Independence Day with an audience of 30,000 and again with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra on a subscription concert. In January of 2013 John Zoltek, music director of the Glacier Symphony and prolific composer, wrote a two movement concerto for trumpet for Ms. Dungey that Natalie successfully premiered with the Glacier Symphony to two sold out performances. Also in 2013, Natalie was the featured soloist with the Louisville Orchestra for the opening concert of the Kentucky Music Educator’s Association Conference.
Past solo appearances include the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with the Indiana Wind Symphony, the Hummel Trumpet Concerto with the Auburn Symphony (WA), Grand Russian Fantasia by Jules Levy with the Boston Brass at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and at the Texas Bandmaster's Association in San Antonio. In May of 2012, Natalie spent 6 weeks in Japan with the Aimachi Drum & Bugle Corps as a featured soloist in their 50th Anniversary production. Natalie has also been the featured guest artist at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville Kentucky, the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon, and the Festival Amadeus in Whitefish Montana.
Additional performances have included a second winning year at the National Trumpet Competition playing the Tomasi Concerto, soloing with the University of Washington combined University and Campus bands twice, the “Prayer of Saint Gregory” with the Northwest Symphony, “The Trumpeter’s Lullaby” with the Auburn Symphony, and Del Staiger’s “Carnival of Venice” with the Sammamish Symphony.
Natalie has grown up in a musical family. Her mother is a professional violinist and her father a professional trumpeter and band director. As a toddler, she would sit on her father's lap while he taught trumpet lessons and attended rehearsals for the church orchestra, grabbing the mouthpiece and playing any chance she got. She could be found carrying (dragging) an old trumpet her dad gave her around the house and blasting away. She begged him to teach her, but he refused, believing she was too young. Undeterred, Natalie assigned herself the first few pages of a method book. After practicing them diligently, she put stars on the ones she could do well and again asked for her dad to teach her. Finally, at age 7, she began formal lessons with her dad, insisting that he teach her "just like his students."
Just before her 9th birthday, from her audition recording of the 1st movement of the "Concerto for Trumpet" by Hummel, she was advanced to the National Trumpet Competition Junior Division semi-final round in Fairfax, Virginia. There she was featured in a master class filmed for Fox 5 TV News in Washington D.C., coached by Professor Vincent DiMartino (world renown trumpet clinician and performer), Adam Rapa (solo artist and lead trumpet for the Broadway show "Blast"), and Vladislav Lavrik (Principal Trumpet of the Russian National Orchestra).
Other than her dad, Natalie studies with Adam Rapa and is often coached by her mom for both trumpet and violin. She is currently studying under Jens Lindemann at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Natalie has also been teaching private lessons for over 6 years to a variety of levels from beginner to advanced. Some of which have gone on to play first trumpet in All State Bands as well as into the semi-final rounds of the National Trumpet Competition.
Natalie will be graduating from UCLA in June 2021 with a BM in Trumpet Performance and a BA in Psychology.
Written for her by Hollywood film composer and Grammy winner Mateo Messina (Soundtrack for "Juno"), Natalie performed the world premier of “Calling The Calvary” with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in Benaroya Hall, Seattle's premier concert hall with an audience of 2000. She performed the exciting work again with the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra in an outdoor concert for Independence Day with an audience of 30,000 and again with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra on a subscription concert. In January of 2013 John Zoltek, music director of the Glacier Symphony and prolific composer, wrote a two movement concerto for trumpet for Ms. Dungey that Natalie successfully premiered with the Glacier Symphony to two sold out performances. Also in 2013, Natalie was the featured soloist with the Louisville Orchestra for the opening concert of the Kentucky Music Educator’s Association Conference.
Past solo appearances include the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with the Indiana Wind Symphony, the Hummel Trumpet Concerto with the Auburn Symphony (WA), Grand Russian Fantasia by Jules Levy with the Boston Brass at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and at the Texas Bandmaster's Association in San Antonio. In May of 2012, Natalie spent 6 weeks in Japan with the Aimachi Drum & Bugle Corps as a featured soloist in their 50th Anniversary production. Natalie has also been the featured guest artist at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville Kentucky, the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon, and the Festival Amadeus in Whitefish Montana.
Additional performances have included a second winning year at the National Trumpet Competition playing the Tomasi Concerto, soloing with the University of Washington combined University and Campus bands twice, the “Prayer of Saint Gregory” with the Northwest Symphony, “The Trumpeter’s Lullaby” with the Auburn Symphony, and Del Staiger’s “Carnival of Venice” with the Sammamish Symphony.
Natalie has grown up in a musical family. Her mother is a professional violinist and her father a professional trumpeter and band director. As a toddler, she would sit on her father's lap while he taught trumpet lessons and attended rehearsals for the church orchestra, grabbing the mouthpiece and playing any chance she got. She could be found carrying (dragging) an old trumpet her dad gave her around the house and blasting away. She begged him to teach her, but he refused, believing she was too young. Undeterred, Natalie assigned herself the first few pages of a method book. After practicing them diligently, she put stars on the ones she could do well and again asked for her dad to teach her. Finally, at age 7, she began formal lessons with her dad, insisting that he teach her "just like his students."
Just before her 9th birthday, from her audition recording of the 1st movement of the "Concerto for Trumpet" by Hummel, she was advanced to the National Trumpet Competition Junior Division semi-final round in Fairfax, Virginia. There she was featured in a master class filmed for Fox 5 TV News in Washington D.C., coached by Professor Vincent DiMartino (world renown trumpet clinician and performer), Adam Rapa (solo artist and lead trumpet for the Broadway show "Blast"), and Vladislav Lavrik (Principal Trumpet of the Russian National Orchestra).
Other than her dad, Natalie studies with Adam Rapa and is often coached by her mom for both trumpet and violin. She is currently studying under Jens Lindemann at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Natalie has also been teaching private lessons for over 6 years to a variety of levels from beginner to advanced. Some of which have gone on to play first trumpet in All State Bands as well as into the semi-final rounds of the National Trumpet Competition.
Natalie will be graduating from UCLA in June 2021 with a BM in Trumpet Performance and a BA in Psychology.
