Biography

Professor of Music Kim Dunnick has been at Ithaca College since the Fall of 1981.  In addition to private trumpet instruction, he  coaches brass chamber music and is Chair of the Performance Studies Department.  He is a recipient of a Dana Fellowship, awarded for excellence in teaching

Prior to Ithaca, Dr. Dunnick taught for five years at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee, and during his doctoral work at Indiana University, he was an Associate Instructor in Trumpet.

Dunnick received a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, a Master of Music degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and the Doctor of Music degree (with distinction) from Indiana University.  His trumpet teachers include Louis Davidson, Herbert Mueller, David Flowers and Charles Gorham.

From 1970 to 1973 Dunnick was a member of The United States Army Band in Washington, D.C., where he performed with the Ceremonial Band, the Herald Trumpets and The Army Blues jazz band.  In addition to frequent performances at the White House, his work with the Herald Trumpets took him to such diverse locations as Anchorage, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Dunnick has been a member of the Knoxville Symphony, the Elmira Symphony, the Brasswind quintet and, for ten years, was solo trumpet of the Victoria Bach Festival in Texas.  He has performed with the Syracuse and Binghamton Symphonies, the BC Pops, the Evansville Little Symphony and numerous other groups in the Central New York area. He is currently principal trumpet with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and a member of the resident IC brass quintet, the Ithaca Brass.  In the summers, he performs with the Skaneateles Festival Orchestra.

Active as a clinician and adjudicator, he has given trumpet master classes both in the USA and abroad, including classes at the Royal Northern Academy of Music in Manchester, England, the Gnessins Academy in Moscow, Russia and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.  He has been on the panel of judges for international competitions in Moscow and Saratov, Russia and in Kiev, Ukraine.  He has judged the finals of the National Trumpet Competition in Washington, D.C., the International Trumpet Guild annual competition, and the taped initial round of the Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Solo Competition.

The International Trumpet Guild (ITG) is an organization of over six thousand members representing more than sixty countries around the world.  A founding member of the ITG, Dr. Dunnick has served for many years on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, and from 1997-1999, as President.  He has written several articles for the ITG Journal, and served as Book Review Editor for 20 years.  More recently, he was co-editor of the autobiography of famous Russian virtuoso Timofei Dokshizer, and he produced the celebratory pamphlet Twenty Five Years of the ITG, highlighting important figures and events of this organization’s twenty five years of service to the trumpet community.  For more information on the ITG, see the "Favorite Links" section of this site.

At the ITG conference in Denver in June of 2004, Dunnick was honored by the ITG when he was awarded that organization's Award of Merit.  In presenting the award, ITG President Stephen Chenette cited Dunnick's "outstanding teaching and performance throughout the world" as well as his service to ITG.