A wide variety of performance opportunities await our students each year, with orchestras, bands, choirs and opera, jazz nonets and combos, small ensembles, and more.
A variety of programs and initiatives operate continuously or annually to enhance learning experiences and help students prepare for their future in music.
The MSU College of Music supports and challenges students, values innovation and creativity, and helps every community member achieve professional excellence.
Heather Zweifel served as principal trumpet of the Sarasota Opera Orchestra for seven years and has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa, ON), CityMusic Cleveland, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Opera Cleveland, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and is solo trumpet on the newly released CD “Winter Moons” by Jerod Impichchaachahaa’ Tate on Azica Records.
In 1996 Zweifel co-founded Burning River Brass, a twelve-member brass and percussion ensemble. Praised for its “power and virtuosity,” “harmonious blend,” and “consistently stirring performances,” BRB has released seven CDs and toured extensively from Alaska to Taiwan including concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Severance Hall. A featured guest at the International Trumpet Guild Conference (2015), the International Trombone Festival (2013), and NTDTV New Year’s Gala at Radio City Music Hall (2006), Burning River Brass has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and Sunday Baroque as well as radio stations throughout the United States and abroad.
Zweifel has held faculty teaching positions at the University of Akron and Youngstown State University and has lead masterclasses and outreach concerts across the country. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her principal teachers have included Lt. Col. Gilbert Mitchell, Steve Hendrickson, Michael Sachs, and David Zauder.