Merrie Klazek

Brief biography

Merrie Klazek is a versatile and respected trumpet artist in the world of performance and education. Fluent in orchestral, chamber, solo, traditional (world), and popular music, Merrie joined the full-time faculty at the University of Victoria’s School of Music in 2016. Merrie holds a BMus from her native Calgary and an MMus from Northwestern University where she studied with the late Vincent Cichowicz.

Her musical travels have taken her around the globe with performance highlights including Spoleto Festival Italy, Musik Contemporaire Strasbourg France, Tokyo's Bunka Kaikan hall, Stratford Festival, Hungary's Niyrbator Festival, and many solo appearances with Canadian orchestras. Merrie’s first solo album “Songs to the Moon” has been featured on TVO Studio 2 and CBC Radio. Her second album “Dance Around the Sun” (November 2023). This album celebrates the trumpet in settings of world music with over 24 musicians from around the globe. Both can be heard on music streaming platforms.

Merrie has appeared as a presenter, artist and adjudicator at the International Trumpet Guild Conference ('08,’11,’18,’21-'23), International Women’s Brass Conference (’10,’12,’17), Canadian Women’s Brass Collective (’20,'24), World Trumpet Society ('19), and at the Trompetenmuseum in Badsackingen, Germany. Her engaging lectures and presentations cover topics including Performance Skills, Trumpet Pedagogy, Women in Brass, Trumpet and the Art Song, and Music as a Global Connector. In 2022 Merrie commissioned “Listen to Learn”, a piece for 9 trumpets based on themes of reconciliation and acknowledgement to the Indigenous people of Canada, which was premiered by her students at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Merrie is currently co-writing a series of pedagogical publications on various topics with UK trumpeter John Hutchinson. Prior to joining the faculty at UVic, Merrie played principal trumpet with the Thunder Bay Symphony from 1999-2018, and has held the same position with Victoria Symphony (2005-06) and Orchestra London Canada (1996-99). Merrie is an endorsing artist for Wedge Mouthpieces, Bach Trumpets/Conn-Selmer, and Robinson’s Remedies.