Dr. Richard Byrd is Professor of Theory and Composition at Eastern Kentucky University where he teaches a wide range of undergraduate theory curriculum including Music Theory and Form and Analysis as well as graduate theory courses including Analytical Techniques and Pedagogy of Theory. He has previously taught theory and applied trumpet at the University of the Cumberlands where he was coordinator of Instrumental Music studies and the Music Theory program. He has also taught as an adjunct trumpet professor at the University of Kentucky and at Transylvania University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Trumpet Performance at DePauw University, he earned both his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Music Theory from the University of Kentucky. During his doctoral studies he was awarded the prestigious Dissertation Year Fellowship for his research on the solo and chamber music of the composer Fisher A. Tull.

As a composer, Byrd was commissioned by the artist-in-residence music faculty at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts to write a piece to be performed at the 2008 Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts summer program. His work was entitled Conversations for Clarinet, Trumpet, Viola, Percussion and Piano. The EKU Faculty Brass Quintet of which he is a member featured his arrangement of Kabalevsky’s Clowns at the 2008 Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Kentucky.

Byrd is an acclaimed musician in the central Kentucky region and is frequently heard performing music from classical to jazz. His classical experiences include performing with the Indianapolis Symphony, West Virginia, and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the Opera of Central Kentucky and the Lexington Brass Band. During his tenure with the Lexington Brass Band he was featured as a soloist during the band’s England tour. He has performed with several prominent jazz artists including Allen Vizzutti, Jeff Tyzik, Maynard Ferguson, Byron Stripling, Louie Bellson, Bob Mintzer, James Moody, and the Manhattan Transfer. His jazz experiences include work in studio recording, several shows with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Robert Goulet, Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Valle, Lou Rawls, Loretta Lynn, and Carol Channing. His lead trumpet abilities with the DiMartino/Osland Jazz Orchestra (DOJO) are showcased on their CDs entitled Quotient and Off the Charts. He has also appeared on the Kentucky Educational Television’s jazz documentary entitled “In the Mood: The Big Band Era in the Bluegrass” with guest artist Byron Stripling and DOJO, and “Ellington and Beyond with Louie Bellson” with the Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra. Byrd has recorded his own solo trumpet CD entitled Portrait of a Trumpet.

As an educator of junior and senior high school trumpet students, Byrd has gained a prominent reputation among schools in the Commonwealth as a private trumpet instructor. Many of his students have won awards, performed as soloists with several bands and orchestras, and won competitions at the regional, state, national, and international levels, including the International Trumpet Guild and the National Trumpet Competitions. He is also active as an adjudicator and clinician. He has been a full-time artist-in-residence with the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts since 1989 and serves as the Chair of the Instrumental Music discipline and the Dean of Faculty.

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