Chris Morrison, one of the creators of Foothills Brass and its Artistic Director for the past 30 years, has enjoyed a diverse career in music along with an active lifestyle. Two summers in Canada’s National Youth Orchestra, considerable orchestral freelancing in the Toronto region and five years as principal trumpet of the Thunder Bay Symphony convinced him that his musical future lay in chamber music, leading to the choice of Calgary as a home and the beginnings of Foothills Brass in 1980. Since then Chris has performed with ensembles from country and jazz bands to the Calgary Philharmonic, toured with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and National Ballet orchestras, and visited Banff repeatedly as principal trumpet of the Banff Festival Orchestra.
Chris is active in Arts Immersion classroom teaching and teacher training. He has been involved as a teaching artist with Calgary Arts Partners in Education, ArtSmarts, and the Royal Conservatory of Music’s “Learning Through the Arts.” A founder of the Calgary Arts Academy, he served on their Board of Directors for six years and in 2007 represented them in Beijing for the annual Sino Canadian Educational Cultural Exchange.
Chris’ youth in the BC mountains and the Northwest Territories led to a love of the outdoors through hiking, camping, and canoeing. He has ridden his vintage motorcycle from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland; climbed many of the famous peaks of the Alberta Rockies; competed with his horse at a national level in long distance riding; and remains an avid hiker and cyclist. An ideal holiday is spent rebuilding trails in the back country of Banff National Park, or kayaking through the islands of the west coast.