About

Ross Venneberg is a Seattle-based trumpeter, conductor and educator. He is currently finishing his final year as a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate (ABD) at the University of Washington, where he studies trumpet with David Gordon and conducting with Timothy Salzman.

Ross has performed with a variety of professional ensembles including the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Lake Washington Symphony, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Napa Valley, St. James Cathedral Brass (Seattle), Seattle Chamber Brass and The Bay Brass. He has also performed at summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, Marrowstone Music Festival, Miami Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. Ross has toured throughout the United States and in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Slovakia in concert halls such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonie, Lincoln Center, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He has been fortunate to play under renowned conductors Ludovic Morlot, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

As a soloist, Ross has been featured with the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, the University of California Berkeley Symphony and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Orchestra. He has also performed with the organists of the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (NYC) and St. Ignatius Church (SF). 

As a conductor, he founded and directs the UW Brass, which has presented annual Holiday Brass concerts and been a guest ensemble at the 2018 and 2019 Northwest Brass Festival. He is co-director of the UW Campus Band and conducted members of the UW Wind Ensemble in their annual chamber winds concert and on tour in China. Ross is also a conductor for the Sitka Holiday Brass, which brings together top orchestral and solo brass players to Alaska every December. 

An advocate for education and outreach, Ross has held teaching positions at the Manhattan School of Music Arts-in-Education and Distance Learning programs, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and has presented masterclasses at the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University and in China at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and Tsinghua University.

A native of Sitka, Alaska, Ross earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Saint Mary's College of California and his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music. His notable teachers include Mark Gould, Adam Luftman, and Roger Schmidt.