Ryan Darke
Director of Brass Studies + Trumpet
Office: UMC-C304
e-mail: ryan.darke@csulb.edu
Ryan Darke is Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Director of Brass Studies at the Bob Cole Conservatory at California State University Long Beach. He has also taught at The Colburn Conservatory, the University of Arizona, and The Juilliard School’s Tianjin campus.
Ryan has performed with top orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, and the Detroit Symphony, among others. He was formerly 2nd trumpet with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and principal trumpet with the San Diego Symphony. He currently performs as a rotating guest principal trumpet with the Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra.
An active recording artist, Ryan has contributed to major film and television scores, including The Greatest Showman, The Mandalorian, Turning Red, The Suicide Squad, Star Trek: Picard, and Mulan.
A founding member of the Grammy-nominated new music collective wildUp, Ryan has recently been involved in recording the works of Julius Eastman as part of an ongoing project to complete Eastman’s full anthology. wildUp has released eight other records, dating back to its debut release, Salt of the Earth, in 2012.
Ryan is also deeply committed to youth music education, mentoring through programs such as Jumpstart, OrchKids, and YOLA. From 2019 to 2024, he taught graduate-level pedagogy at The Colburn Conservatory, playing a key role in curriculum design.
He holds degrees from The Colburn School (A.D.), Rice University (M.M.), and the Bob Cole Conservatory at CSULB (B.M.).
