EVANSTON—Ethan Bensdorf, recipient of the Bachelor of Music degree in 2007, has been appointed Second Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. He will join there 2006 graduate Matthew Muckey, named Associate Principal Trumpet of the Philharmonic in 2006. Both Bensdorf and Muckey are students of Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer.

Ethan Bensdorf won First Prize in the 2006 Armando Ghitalla Trumpet Competition, and in 2005 was one of four Northwestern students selected to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He has also been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, performing as principal trumpeter under James Levine, and was for two years a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Bensdorf has also participated in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, and was a semifinalist at the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Matthew Muckey joined the Philharmonic in June 2006. A native of Sacramento, California, he has played with the Boston Pops Orchestra, New World Symphony, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Muckey was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center during the summers of 2003 to 2005, and was there the recipient of the Roger Voisin Award in both 2004 and 2005.  He has appeared as soloist with the Omaha Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, California Wind Orchestra, and on NPR’s program From the Top.