ERIC BAKER

Eric Baker grew up in Ft. Worth, TX, and began playing the trumpet at age 11. He received his B.M. in Music Education from the University of Texas at Arlington, and earned his Master’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from Arizona State University where he studied with internationally renowned trumpet soloist, David Hickman. Mr. Baker was a member of The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps for three years (2000, 2002, 2003).

Mr. Baker moved to Odessa, TX in July 2006 to begin his tenure as Co-Principal trumpet with the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale. He has also performed with the Big Spring Symphony, and the San Angelo Symphony, the Legend Brass Quintet, the West Texas Trumpet Workshop, and the Salt River Brass Band. He also performs regularly with the Lone Star Brass Quintet, Current Nine, The Pinstripes Jazz Quartet, and Emily & the Rhumba Kings. He performed with the touring production of the hit Broadway musical Chicago, and has performed on stage with The Temptations and The Four Tops. He free-lances all over West Texas, and is a highly sought-after marching band clinician and private teacher.

In 2007 Mr. Baker was invited to be a featured soloist at the Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, WA, and in 2010, he was a semi-finalist for the National Young Artists Competition. In 2011 he performed as a trumpet soloist with the Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale, and in 2016 he was invited back to perform with the MOSC as a vocal soloist. Mr. Baker appears as a trumpet artist on the albums "What Sweeter Music" and "Rocket Science," and appears on the album "Caleb Young" as a vocalist.

He was appointed to the position of Director of Bands at Odessa College in 2009 where he conducts the Concert, Jazz, and Athletic bands, teaches the trumpet studio, conducts the opera productions, and serves as Chair of Visual and Performing Arts Department. He also serves on the board of directors for Odessa Arts, and the West Texas Jazz Society. His wife, Emily is the director of the MOSC Voices of the Permian Basin. They have three daughters, Piper, Keller, and Harper. Mr. Baker is a Conn-Selmer Endorsing Artist.

BEN FAIRFIELD - TRUMPET

Ben Fairfield, a native of Staunton, VA, is the Co-Principal Trumpet of the Midland-Odessa Symphony, a member of the Symphony’s Lone Star Brass Quintet, and the Principal Trumpet of the Abilene Philharmonic.  He is also the Associate Principal Trumpet of the Missouri Symphony in Columbia, MO and a member of the Lone Star Winds in Dallas, TX.  He frequently performs as a guest member of the trumpet section with orchestras throughout the United States including the New Mexico Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, San Juan Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, and the Waco Symphony. Recent engagements have taken him to New York, NY, Albuquerque, NM, Denver, CO, Miami, FL, Philadelphia, PA, and San Francisco, CA. Prior to his time in Texas, he performed in the orchestras of the Florida Grand Opera and the Miami City Ballet in Miami, FL. 

Ben has taught trumpet at Eastern New Mexico University, Auburn University, Barry University, and the University of Miami.  He is also a veteran of the United States Army, performing as a member of the United States Continental Army Band at Ft. Monroe, VA. With this group, he performed throughout the United States on tours with both the Concert Band and Brass Quintet.  He has performed as a featured soloist with the United States Continental Army Band and several orchestras, performing works ranging from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 to Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in Eb and Copland’s Quiet City, and with noted opera singers Placido Domingo, Denyce Graves, Ailyn Perez, and Bryn Terfel. He has also performed at the conferences of the International Trumpet Guild, the American Bandmasters Association, the Texas Music Educators Association, the Virginia Music Educators Association, and in many of the nation’s leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, the Kennedy Center, and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

In March 2017, Ben and pianist Liana Pailodze Harron gave the New York City premiere of Grammy Award winning composer Michael Daugherty’s The Lightning Fields for trumpet and piano at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, NYC.  The duo has also worked with Eric Ewazen on his popular Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, with plans to record the sonata in collaboration with the composer in the near future.  The duo’s recording of Lucid Dream, an arrangement of Michael Nyman’s Flugelhorn and Piano can be found on iTunes and YouTube.

Ben currently resides in Arlington, TX.  He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from James Madison University and graduate degrees (MM, DMA) in trumpet performance from the University of Miami Frost School of Music.  His teachers include Craig Morris, former Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gilbert Johnson, former Principal Trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and James Kluesner Professor Emeritus of Trumpet at James Madison University.

Ben is a Vincent Bach performing artist, a division of Conn-Selmer.

SCOTT MILLICHAMP

Scott Millichamp is Co-Principal Horn of the Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra, hornist with the MOSC’s Lone Star Brass quintet, Fourth Horn with Abilene Philharmonic, Principal Horn with the summertime Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Instructor of Music Theory and Aural Skills at University of Texas of the Permian Basin, and Co-Music Director at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Midland.

A native of Detroit, he graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy with a Fine Arts Award in Horn and received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Horn Performance from Indiana University. Following his time at IU, he served concurrently as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Composition at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, a substitute hornist with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, pianist for Honolulu Waldorf School eurythmics classes, and Choir Accompanist for First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Honolulu. Prior to his MOSC appointment in 2009, he served as Fourth Horn of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra; he has also performed with Arkansas’s Opera in the Ozarks festival and the Lyrique-en-Mer opera festival on Belle-Ile, France. As a recent guest soloist for the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale, Mr. Millichamp performed Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1.

For more information visit www.scottmillichamp.com.

JOHN E. ELIZONDO

Mr. Elizondo was appointed Principal Trombone with the Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale in March 2019.  He is also a member of the Lone Star Brass. 

Mr. Elizondo has been a guest musician with The New World Symphony, American Brass Quintet, and The World Famous Glenn Miller Jazz Band. 

A native of San Antonio TX, John Elizondo earned a bachelor of music in 2013 at The New England Conservatory and graduated with a Masters of Music Degree in 2015 from The Juilliard School. John is an alumni of The Aspen Music Festival and The Music Academy of The West. 

Mr. Elizodno is an avid chamber music performer and is a member of the West Texas Principal Trombone Quartet. This chamber group includes the finest musicians from the Symphonies of The West Texas Region. The members are Principal Trombone Jim Decker and Principal Bass Trombone Darin Cash of the Lubbock Symphony as well as John Shanks Principal Trombone of The Amarillo Symphony. 

John Elizondo is forever indebted to his teachers Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone of The New York Philharmonic and Toby Oft Principal Trombone of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His studies were supported in part by The Edward J. Plotkin Trombone Scholarship.