Sandy Coffin has played the trumpet for as long as she can remember. She gained a Watson Scholarship from IBM for undergraduate studies, an Aeliolian Fellowship from Oberlin for graduate studies, and the John Clark Award for Excellence in Brass Performance from Manhattan School of Music. She took a BMus in Trumpet Performance and BA in Latin from the Oberlin College and Conservatory, and an MM from the Manhattan School of Music.
She has performed throughout the US and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. She commissions and premieres new works which have included Red Sky (solo trumpet) by Peri Mauer, A Cycle of Songs by Susan Kander and Captivity by Lori Laitman, (both for trumpet and soprano), and Trilogy (3 trumpets and piano) by John Wallace. Sandy has toured Spain as soloist with the American Chamber Orchestra. A current member of Gramercy Brass Orchestra of New York and a former member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, and Canton Symphony, she has performed with many ensembles from the Cornerstone Chorale and Brass to the Finnish National Opera.
Sandy founded ‘Music for Summer Evenings’ and its affiliated children’s concert program at the Grace Memorial Chapel on northern Lake George and has presented recitals and educational programmes throughout New York State. She has run fundraisers for ‘Hurricane Sandy’ Relief efforts in NY and NJ; the Lake George Land Conservancy; a variety of education and child protection programmes; and cancer research.
Sandy succeeded Doug Hedwig as Director of Brass Bands at St Hilda’s & St Hugh’s School in New York, in which position (2005-18) she expanded the programme and developed cross-curriculum projects between music and mathematics, science, architecture and history. She continues her passion for music education in Scotland, working as a tutor for the National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland and The Wallace Collection.
Sandy is currently working on a PhD in the archives and instrument collections held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Arnold Myers, on the development of chromatic brass instruments and their repertory in the nineteenth century.