Dr. Chris Underwood is an active educator and performer throughout the United States and Europe. Dr. Underwood currently is on faculty at the University of Delaware as Assistant Professor of Trumpet and has held positions at UNC Pembroke and East Tennessee State University leading master classes, conducting trumpet ensembles and teaching studio lessons.
Currently, Dr. Underwood is Second Trumpet/Associate Principal of the Asheville Symphony and Solo cornet with the 3 Time National Champions, Atlantic Brass Band. Previously, Underwood has held positions as Principal Trumpet in the Durham Symphony, Principal Trumpet in the Lunds Stadsokester, Piedmont Wind Symphony, and Solo Cornet in the North Carolina Brass Band. He has also performed with the Malmö Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Western Piedmont Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, and Bay Atlantic Symphony.
While living in Europe, Dr. Underwood studied at the Malmö Academy of Music in Malmö, Sweden as well as completing a one-year intensive master's program in orchestral studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, U.K. where he was a featured soloist and chamber musician throughout England. He also participated in an orchestral residency in Montepulciano, Italy, where he performed with the Royal Northern Symphony Orchestra and Brass Ensembles in various capacities.
Dr. Underwood received his D.M.A. in trumpet at the University of North Carolina, Masters in Orchestral Studies from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, U.K., and a completed a Graduate program at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden with Bo Nilsson and Håkan Hardenberger. Additionally, Dr. Underwood holds a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Bachelor's in Music Business from Radford University.
Dr. Underwood's teachers have included Mark Clodfelter, John Miller, Rhys Owens, David Hendry, Bo Nilsson and Mark Camphouse. Additionally he has studied and worked with Håkan Hardenberger, Mireia Farrés, Tom Hooten, Paul Merkelo and Tim Morrison.
Dr. Underwood has attended and performed in festivals in Spain, Italy, and England working with Reinhold Friedrich, Kristian Steenstrup, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Pierre Dutot.
