Kris Kwapis appears regularly as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Upper Valley Baroque, Boston Baroque, Bach Collegium San Diego, Oregon Bach Festival/Berwick Academy, Staunton Music Festival, and Seattle Bach Festival, among others, making music with directors such as Andrew Parrott, John Butt, Monica Huggett, Jos Van Veldhoven, Alexander Weimann, Jacques Ogg, and Masaaki Suzuki. Her playing is heard on Kleos, Naxos, ReZound, Lyrichord, Musica Omnia and Dorian labels, including the 2013 GRAMMY nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and broadcast on CBC, WNYC, WQED (Pittsburgh), Portland All-Classical (KQAC), Sunday Baroque and Wisconsin Public Radio. 

A student of Armando Ghitalla on modern trumpet, with a BM and MM in trumpet performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kwapis also holds a DMA in historical performance from Stony Brook University (NY). Since 2010, she enjoys sharing her passion with the next generation of performers as a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute (teaching cornetto and baroque trumpet) in addition to teaching at her home in Seattle and online. When not playing, writing, speaking or thinking about music, Kris also creates visual art in the encaustic medium and is an avid cook and home remodeler

** Kris Kwapis will be on faculty week 2 of the 2025 Amherst Early Music Festival