Anne McNamara

Biography

Anne McNamara is the Associate Professor of Trumpet at Illinois State University where her duties involve teaching applied trumpet, performing in the ISU faculty brass quintet, and serving as the Associate Director of the School of Music. In addition to her duties at ISU, Dr. McNamara works regularly as a freelance trumpeter including performances as principal trumpet with Heartland Festival Orchestra, substitute work with Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Champaign Urbana Symphony and Sinfonia de Camera, and flugelhorn solo chair with Athena Brass Band. Her debut album "A Winter's Night" is available on several platforms including Amazon Music, ITunes and Spotify and it features the premiere recordings of several works.

An avid supporter of new music, Dr. McNamara actively pursues the commission and performance of new works such as her commission of Dr. Roy Magnuson's "Thoughts and Prayers," Carson Cooman’s Sonata for Flugelhorn and Piano and the adaptation of Kevin McKee’s A Winter’s Night. She is also very active as a clinician and educator giving many university and high school masterclasses each year. Anne has also performed and presented at both the International Women’s Brass Conference and the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) conference. Beginning in October 2025, Anne will serve on the Board of Directors of ITG.

Dr. McNamara earned a BM in Music Education and a Jazz Studies minor from James Madison University, a MM in Trumpet Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a DMA in Trumpet Performance from the University of Maryland. Her primary trumpet teachers include Chris Gekker, Steve Hendrickson, Dr. Michael Ewald, Ronald Romm, Tito Carrillo, and Jim Kluesner. Dr. McNamara is a Yamaha Performing Artist.