Anthony Plog on Music

Conversations with performers, composers, and entrepreneurs

Chris Gekker: The versatile trumpet performer, author, and pedagogue at the University of Maryland School of Music

Anthony Plog, host
Eddie Ludema, producer
Date posted: Aug 2, 2025

Trumpeter Chris Gekker has done just about everything a brass player can do—and done it at the highest level. A longtime member of the American Brass Quintet (18 years) and now Professor of Trumpet at the University of Maryland, Chris has also taught at Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. His career spans recording Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 to sharing the stage with Sting, all grounded by a reflective artistic life shaped by literature and poetry.


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Part 1

In Part 1, we talk about the books that feed his imagination, his father and early upbringing, the interpretive world of the Hindemith Sonata, trumpet mentors from Gerard Schwarz to Thomas Stevens, and the winding arc of a career that prizes curiosity over categories.

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[Subscriber Content] In Part 2, Chris reflects on the transition to full-time teaching at Maryland and takes us deep into his approach to trumpet playing and musicianship—drawing on insights from his writing, especially Trumpet Talk.



The podcast theme music, Four Sierra Scenes, written by Anthony Plog, is taken from Crystal Records S205, copyright ©1980 Crystal Records Inc., and is used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.