Dr. Jacob Dalager is an international crossover soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, award-winning composer, and Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Director of Jazz at New Mexico State University. He is an innovative pedagogue, taking a modern and individualized approach to solving the trumpet's technical challenges and laying the groundwork for each student's multi-faceted music career.

Dalager's first solo recording, Paradigms: The Music of Anthony Plog (Tonsehen, 2021) features seven previously unrecorded pieces by Plog. With a warm sound, nuanced phrasing, and technically spectacular passages, it has received critical acclaim in Fanfare, ITG Journal, Meet the Artist, and American Record Guide.

Jacob premiered his second concerto, Organ Mountain Fantasia (a featured selection at the 2024 International Trumpet Guild and College Music Society conferences), with the NMSU Wind Symphony in 2022 to enthusiastic reception. He performed his first concerto, 3ɟutures (which took second prize at the 2022 Music International Grand Prix and Honorable Mention in the 2023 American Prize competition), with the Austin Symphony Orchestra in 2019 after playing three concerti with the orchestra in 2016. Prior to that, he soloed with the Jesselton Philharmonic, Te Deum Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Olaf Band and Orchestra.

Dalager is a member of the Las Cruces and El Paso Symphony Orchestras. Before moving to New Mexico, he was principal trumpet of the Washington Chamber Orchestra for six seasons and has been a guest performer with the National Philharmonic, Post-Classical Ensemble, Rochester Philharmonic, Symphoria, Singapore Symphony, National Taiwan Symphony, and Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestras, among others. He can be heard on the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's recordings of Rachmaninoff and Debussy.

As a chamber musician, Dalager re-formed the NMSU Brass Quintet and led the acclaimed Parkway Brass and M-Street Brass Quintets in Maryland. His groundbreaking quintet, Suite Analogique, has been performed across the country and won third prize in the 2023 American Prize competition, second in the 2020 Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, and the 2022 Foundation for Modern Music Audience Choice Award.

A versatile crossover musician, Jacob plays solo trumpet with the Border Jazz Orchestra and leads the NMSU Faculty Jazz Combo; he was lead trumpet of the Wammy-award-winning bands Black Masala and Shamans of Sound. In 2022, he headlined the FIMUS Jazz Festival in Brazil and performed at the Singapore International and World Youth Jazz Festivals. He has shared the stage with jazz greats James Morrison, Wayne Bergeron, and Javon Jackson, to name a few.

Dr. Dalager has cultivated a growing, supportive trumpet studio at NMSU. He regularly brings in world-renowned trumpeters to work with this studio, such as Brian Davis, SSG Ryan Brewer, Tony Plog, Dr. Nancy Taylor, and Peter Bond. The students regularly collaborate on studio projects and play together in trumpet ensembles, brass quintets, and brass choir; and they participate in the broader trumpet community through events sponsored by the International Trumpet Guild and National Trumpet Competition. His students have gone on to competitive graduate programs, won auditions, and become excellent music educators themselves.

Under his direction, the NMSU Jazz Ensemble has tackled challenging repertoire and grown to new heights. They have performed at the Roswell International and Organ Mountain Jazz Festivals, established the first Essentially Ellington festival in the region and the Southwest Honor Jazz Band, premiered new arrangements by Dalager, and performed with some of the top jazz musicians from around the world, including Terell Stafford, Ben Allison, Seve Cardenas, Jerome Jennings, Raffy Bushman, and Owen Broder.

Dalager holds a D.M.A. from Catholic University (2020), M.M. from the Eastman School of Music (2012), and a B.A. and B.M. from St. Olaf College (2009). For more information, visit www.jacobdalager.com.