Louis Hanzlik

Professor of Trumpet, Department Head

Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
M.M., The Juilliard School
B.M., University of Iowa

Louis Hanzlik is an internationally recognized, GRAMMY Award-winning trumpeter, chamber musician, and educator. A member of the renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and former member of the American Brass Quintet, Hanzlik has performed throughout Asia, Australia, North America, South America, and Europe.

Dr. Hanzlik is Professor of Trumpet at the University of Connecticut, and will begin his term as Department Head of Music in August 2024. For a decade, Hanzlik served as a member of The Juilliard School and Aspen Music Festival & School faculties. 

A member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for nearly two decades, Hanzlik also serves as the orchestra’s Artistic Director of Programming. In 2019 Hanzlik and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra were awarded a third GRAMMY for their performance with the Wayne Shorter Quartet on the album “Emanon.” Under Hanzlik’s leadership as Artistic Director of Orpheus, the 2023/24 season brings the orchestra to New York City’s Carnegie Hall and 92NY stages, a tour of Japan, domestic performances throughout the northeast and southeast United States, and the continuation of a newly-curated series called Club Orpheus, bringing Orpheus to venues such as Brooklyn’s Six Point Brewery. 

As an educator, Dr. Hanzlik promotes the inclusion of chamber music within a student’s learning and subsequent professional life. His dissertation, Fostering Democracy and Citizenship through Chamber Music Coaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, examines chamber music’s unique social and musical attributes, such as collaborative leadership, critical thinking, mutuality, and suggests that democratically-mindful chamber music classrooms foster Artist-Citizenry, in addition to advanced musicianship. At the University of Connecticut, Hanzlik’s concepts are widely realized through many lenses; from the undergraduate chamber music ensembles he coaches, to a frequently-offered UConn Honors Program Seminar titled Democratic Leadership through the Arts (The Orpheus Experience). In these communities Hanzlik facilitates pathways for students to respectfully engage one another as artist-citizens.

In addition to his work with Orpheus, Hanzlik performs frequently with many of the world’s finest chamber orchestras, including a solo appearance with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and as a frequent guest principal trumpet with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Hanzlik performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (NYC) and is former Principal Trumpet of the Riverside Symphony (NYC). Hanzlik was a founding member of the Extension Ensemble (winner of the 1999 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition), Manhattan Brass Quintet (2000-2002), and Atlantic Brass Quintet (2002-2014). He served as trumpeter for the Broadway production of Disney’s “Mary Poppins” from 2006-2008, and was co-principal trumpet with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra (Memphis, TN) from 2000-2008. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and New York City’s Ballet, Opera, and Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as dozens of NYC’s other cultural institutions.

In response to his performances of the Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Trumpet with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Orpheus at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times mentioned “Louis Hanzlik, stood throughout the work, and his crisp, focused playing — particularly in the muted, gently chromatic solo in the Lento movement — made a strong case for equal billing.” The Washington Post also stated that Hanzlik “gave an appropriately rollicking performance” and “it was Hanzlik, relishing in high Shostakovich sarcasm, who easily stole the show.”

Hanzlik is a Trumpet Artist for the Vincent Bach Corporation, and can be heard on dozens of recordings on such labels as Naxos, Blue Note, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Summit, Decca, Chandos, Arabesque, Bridge, New World, and Vanguard Classics labels. Hanzlik has recorded frequently for commercial radio and television and for numerous public radio and television features, such as Live from Lincoln Center, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, the NFL on NBC (Sunday Night Football), and CBS Sunday Morning. 

Originally from Iowa, Hanzlik is a graduate of the University of Iowa (B.M.), The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Teachers College, Columbia University (Ed.D.). He resides in Storrs, CT with his wife, Amanda, and two children, Ethan and Grace.