Grace O’Connell
Trumpet
Grace O’Connell is a musician with highly diverse interests, equally passionate about soloing,
orchestral playing, chamber music and teaching. She is a current fellow with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program. Grace has performed with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, and is a frequent addition to orchestral trumpet sections including the Nashville Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, Princeton Symphony and others. Grace has been a guest artist with the Manchester Music Festival and the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. Always a dynamic soloist, Grace is an active recitalist and competitor in national and international competitions.
Most recently, Grace was named the first place winner of the Roger Voisin Memorial Trumpet
Competition (2024) and was a finalist in the Ellsworth Smith Competition. She was also named the first place winner in the International Trumpet Guild Solo Division (2023), MTNA Young Artist Solo Division (2022), as well as the National Trumpet Competition Undergraduate Division (2022). She has been a featured soloist with the Yale Philharmia, Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, Southern Stars Symphonic Brass Band, Middle Tennessee Sinfonietta and more. In 2021 and 2023, Grace was the recipient of two separate URECA Grants from Middle Tennessee State University, aiding her in completing several solo trumpet recordings for digital release.
Grace holds a Master of Music from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music from Middle
Tennessee State University. She has studied with John Aley, Kevin Cobb and Michael Arndt.