GLENVILLE, WV – David Porter is currently serving as the Artist-in-Residence for Trumpet at Glenville State College. It is a job that the talented musician is certainly well-suited for.
His orchestral performance background includes serving as the Principal Trumpet for the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (1981-present), Principal Trumpet for the Ohio Valley Symphony Orchestra (1989-present), and Substitute Trumpet with the Lexington Philharmonic (1983-1986; 2017-present).
Porter and his siblings grew up around music. “We were all involved in music…church choir, youth orchestra, middle school band, and so on. When I was in high school I was considering what I would do after graduation and talked to my sister, who was a music major in college at the time. That was when I realized that making a living as a musician was a real possibility, which was what I really wanted to do,” Porter said.
While his original goal was to make a career solely in performing, he says he now considers his career to include performing and teaching. That pairing, he says, goes hand-in-hand. “One of my favorite things about teaching is seeing students achieve success, whether small or large. You can really see their progress and growth, not because of me, but because of their own work and effort,” he said.
Porter has prior experience providing both individual lessons for trumpet and horn students and teaching at the collegiate level. He came to Glenville State College last semester after receiving a call from longtime friend, fellow performer, and GSC Professor Emeritus, Harry Rich. “I’ve known Harry since the 1970s and we’ve played together many times over the years. He had retired several years ago but returned to GSC to teach part time. Last year he called and asked if I would be interested in the position as he was planning to fully retire – I said sure and here we are,” Porter explained.
Now with a full semester of working with the student musicians at Glenville State under his belt, Porter says he is excited to continue working with them again this spring. He hopes to keep moving forward with the musicians, provide them opportunities to perform, and also plans to hold a performance of his own later on in the semester. That recital is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the GSC Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.
“From my view, the Glenville State faculty are all so supportive of the students,” Porter said. “In that sense the students are very fortunate but we as instructors are lucky as well. Teaching gives us opportunities to constantly keep learning things about our own areas and I think that’s a really great thing.”
“We are thrilled to have Mr. Porter with us in the Department of Fine Arts. In addition to his incredible performance resume, he is also a world-class music educator and a genuinely great guy. He is an incredible asset to our department,” said Jason Barr, Department of Fine Arts chair.
