Mueller, Neil

Neil Mueller enjoys a career performing and teaching music. He is Associate Professor of Trumpet at Central Michigan University and Principal Trumpet of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his position in Lansing, he was a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, as Third Trumpet and as acting Associate Principal Trumpet. Previous Principal Trumpet positions include Cleveland’s BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, and the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, ensembles that also featured Mueller as concerto soloist. He also performed concerti with the Boston Pops and the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, as he completed doctoral studies. In 2024, Mueller premiered "River of Time", a concerto from trumpet and orchestra written for him and the Lansing Symphony by David Biedenbender.  The performance was described as "a ringing triumph and a decade highlight for the LSO".  A recording of the performance was released on all of the major streaming platforms in 2026, made possible with support from a FRCE Grant from CMU's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. You can listen to it here:

Biendenbender's River of Time with LSO/Mueller

Mueller has been an active chamber musician, performing for many years with the Berkshire Bach Ensemble, and the Brass Ring quintet. He has made recordings with both of those ensembles and recorded a CD of new works (Call and Response, 2015) for trumpet and piano and for two trumpets. With various ensembles he has performed across the country at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Severance Hall. Other groups that he has performed with include the Burning River Brass and the River Raisin Ragtime Review.

Education of the next generation of trumpeters and educators shares equal importance with performing for Mueller. Since coming to CMU, his students have been finalists for competitions at both the International Trumpet Guild Conference as well as the National Trumpet Competition. Whether seeking a career as a performer or educator, students are pushed to achieve their full potential as musicians. Mueller’s own teachers include Roger Voisin, Allan Dean, William Vacchiano, Manny Laureano, and J. Robert Hanson.

He was previously Associate Professor of Trumpet at North Dakota State University and has taught students at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, the University of New Hampshire, and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute. Before pursuing advance study in trumpet, Mueller was director of bands for three years at Blaine High School in Minnesota. Finally, his approach teaching and the trumpet has resulted in four volumes of pedagogical duets (published by Carl Fischer) that have become very popular with trumpeters across the world, as evidenced by a 2020 performance on a chamber concert by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand.

More information can be found on Dr. Mueller's slightly outdated website.

Scholarships

• 2019 “Orchestral Souvenirs”, a duet book based on orchestral trumpet literature, published by Balquhidder Music / Carl Fischer.
• 2019 Named Principal Trumpet, Lansing Symphony Orchestra
• 2016-2020 Member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra Trumpet Section.