School of Music

Briney

Bruce Briney, D.M.A.
Professor, Trumpet
Browne Studio (E)
Email: BC-Briney@wiu.edu
Visit: Trumpet Studio

Bruce Briney pursues a creative life that intersects the worlds of conducting, performing and teaching. Briney received his musical education from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University where he earned a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance. His primary teachers in trumpet were David Hickman and Vincent Cichowicz with additional studies from Arnold Jacobs, Ray Mase, Charles Geyer, George Vosburgh, Ray Sasaki and Luther Didrickson. At Northwestern, his conducting teachers and mentors included John Paynter and Victor Yampolsky.

Commercial recordings of Briney's work as a conductor and instrumental soloist are represented on the Crystal, Koss, Premiere, Ravello, and RMC labels and distributed by Amazon. He has performed and presented at conferences and conventions throughout the nation including the International Trumpet Guild Convention, the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Texas Music Educators Convention, the Trombone Workshop, the New York Brass Conference, North American Association of Brass Bands, and regional College Music Society and CBDNA meetings.

Briney was selected as the Music Director of the Quincy Symphony (IL) in 2007 commencing with the organization's 60th anniversary season. During his tenure as QSO Music Director, concert attendance and season subscriptions have grown immensely, drawn to the organization's colorful and engaging programming. The Illinois Council of Orchestras awarded Briney the 2012 and Community Orchestra Conductor of the Year Award and the Quincy Symphony received the 2011 Community Service Award for creative artistic collaborations and the 2020 Community Orchestra of the Year award.

2021 marks the start of Briney's twenty ninth year as a music professor at Western Illinois University. He received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communication in 2001. His students are frequent finalists and winners in the National Trumpet Competition, International Trumpet Guild Orchestra Competition, MTNA state and regional solo competitions and the School of Music Concerto Competition. Recent projects include contributions to Luis Loubriel's book Back to Basics, and Mark Dulin's Cichowicz Flow Studies, both focused collections on the life and teachings of brass pedagogue Vincent Cichowicz.