Jeffrey Piper, UNM Professor of Trumpet and International Trumpet Guild President, will present The International Trumpet Guild Honorary Award to The Louis Armstrong House and Archives in Corona, New York Thursday, Oct. 16, at 1 p.m. Founded in 1974, The International Trumpet Guild promotes communications among trumpet players around the world, and to improve the artistic level of performance, teaching and literature associated with the trumpet.
Photo: Jeffrey Piper, professor of Music
ITG’s more than 6,000 members represent 64 countries and include professional and amateur performers, teachers, students, manufacturers, publishers, and others interested in belonging to an organization dedicated to the trumpet profession.
In the early to middle 1980s, the ITG adopted a policy of awarding an official “ITG Honorary Award.” The ITG Honorary Award is given to those individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the art of trumpet playing. These contributions are through performance, teaching, publishing, research, and/or composition. The tradition has been to award persons only toward the end of their careers, rather than at the beginning or height of their careers. The ITG Honorary Award is not given every year in an effort to maintain the highest prestige of the award; the board of directors has been extremely selective regarding nominees and recipients.
Piper began a search for a recipient after learning of the existence of the award from past presidents Stephen Chenette and Stephen Jones. After three years of research and fact-finding, Piper found the Louis Armstrong House and Archives.
The first award recipients were Roger Voisin, Maurice Andre, and Louis Armstrong (later awards have included Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillispie, Clark Terry, Philip Smith, Mel Broiles, and Adolf Herseth). Then-President Stephen Jones was unable to find heirs or a suitable home for the award.