Grammy Award-winning multi-genre trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter first cut his teeth on the New York jazz scene in the late ’90s, while simultaneously studying classical trumpet performance at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of famed trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis.

 

Though he has recorded many albums as a side-musician, Porter has recorded four albums to date, as a leader, that have been garnering high praise, with two more to be released in 2025 (Cipher, and Portland Sketches). His 2019 release Immigration Nation was voted one of the best albums of the year by DownBeat.

 

Charlie has toured the world as a side-man and band-leader in jazz and also as a classical soloist and chamber musician, performing and recording with many notable musicians and groups over the last twenty years ranging from jazz greats including Joe Zawinul, Winard Harper, Mike Longo, Paquito D’Rivera, Ira Sullivan, Aaron Diehl, Mike Holober, Jimmy Greene, Jay Thomas, David Berger, Charli Persip and Chuck Israels to classical artists such as Simone Dinnerstein, Sarah Chang, and Joyce DiDonato as well as world-music greats Goran Bregovic, Marcel Khalife, and Kim Duksoo, among many others. He is also a founding member of the grammy-nominated electro-acoustic Absolute Ensemble, directed by Kristjan Jarvi. Charlie’s

collaboration on opera star Joyce DoDonato’s crossover album “Songplay” earned him a Grammy Award for 2019.

 

Porter holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of music in jazz and classical performance. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. Before his college studies, he attended the Palm Beach County School of the Arts. Among many awards to his credit, Charlie was the first trumpeter to win 1st place in both the classical and jazz divisions of the National Trumpet Competition. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation. 

 

Some of Charlie’s most influential music mentors have included George Davis, Tony York, Sy Pryweller, Randy Sonntag, Wayne Miller, Raymond Mase, Mark Gould, Guy Touvron, Laurie Frink and Cecil Bridgewater.

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Mr. Porter is currently an adjunct professor of trumpet at New York University.