Quick Facts
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Rolf Thorstein Smedvig (September 23, 1952 – April 27, 2015) was an American classical trumpeter. He was the founder of the Empire Brass Quintet.He is renowned for his velvet pure tone and accurate intonation.
Biography
Rolf Smedvig was born in Seattle, Washington. His father Egil Steinar Smedvig (1922-2012) was a composer and music teacher who had immigrated from Stavanger, Norway. His mother Kristin (Jonsson) Smedvig (1921-2004) was member of the Seattle Symphony's violin section who had immigrated from Iceland.
Smedvig joined the Seattle Symphony at age 13. In 1971, he participated in the summer music program at Tanglewood Music Center. Leonard Bernstein chose him to be the trumpet soloist for the 1971 world premiere of his composition Mass which was composed for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Smedvig studied music under the tutelage of Maurice André at Boston University, where Smedvig later served as an instructor. Smedvig joined the Boston Symphony as an assistant principal trumpeter the next year, aged 19. At the time, Smedvig was the youngest orchestra member. He was promoted to principal trumpeter in 1979, and left in 1981 to focus on a solo career, conducting, and chamber music.
Smedvig started the Empire Brass Quintet in the early 1970s. The Empire Brass served as Faculty Quintet-in-Residence at Boston University for a number of years. The group was the first brass quintet to win a Walter W. Naumburg Foundation award. The group has released twenty-some albums.
Personal life
His first marriage to Caroline Elisabeth Hessberg, the daughter of New York lawyer Al Hessberg, ended in divorce. She is now married to the singer-songwriter James Taylor. Smedvig later married Kelly Holub in 1992, with whom he had four children.
Smedvig died of a heart attack at his home in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2015, aged 62. His manager Mark Z. Alpert announced that the Empire Brass would continue; Derek Lockhart replaced Smedvig as first trumpeter and Eric Berlin joined as its second trumpeter.