Name: Elisa Koehler
Title: Professor of Music, Director of Orchestra
Education: D.M.A., Conducting, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Johns Hopkins University
M.M., Trumpet Performance, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
B.M.E. and B.M., Trumpet Performance, Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University
Office: 129 Conservatory of Music
Phone: 803/323-2255
E-mail: koehlere@winthrop.edu
Web: http://elisakoehler.com
Area(s): Orchestral Conducting; Historic Brass; Trumpet Performance; Music History; Music
Technology; Arts Advocacy
Elisa Koehler is a Professor of Music and the Director of the Winthrop Orchestras. She was previously the Chair of the Department of Music at Winthrop from 2019 - 2024. Prior to that, she was Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Dance, Music, and Theatre at Goucher College where she received the college's highest faculty honor, the Caroline Doebler Bruckerl Award, which recognizes an exemplary faculty member in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service.
As a conductor, she was previously the Music Director of the Frederick Symphony Orchestra for seventeen years as well as an active guest conductor and clinician. As a professional trumpeter, Dr. Koehler has performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Brass Quintet, and as the solo trumpeter of Baltimore's Bach Concert Series. She has also performed and recorded on period instruments with the Bach Sinfonia, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Washington Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and Newberry's Victorian Cornet Band.
A noted writer on historic brass, Dr. Koehler is the author of Fanfares and Finesse: A Performer's Guide to Trumpet History and Literature (Indiana University Press), A Dictionary for the Modern Trumpet Player (Rowman and Littlefield), numerous articles, and new editions of the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos published by Carl Fischer Music. She currently serves as Secretary of the International Trumpet Guild and produces the educational YouTube channel, Brass from the Past.
