Joe Cooper

2026 OSU Edmon Low Library Honoree                         

2026 OSU Vice President of Research Top Researcher
2025 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award

Joseph Cooper is the Associate Professor of Trumpet at Oklahoma State University. He is a member of the Mirari Brass Quintet and co-founder of the trumpet/saxophone duo Composite Brass. Previously he taught at the University of Texas- San Antonio, Texas Lutheran University, and Lee College (TX). He has presented recitals and masterclasses at international and national conferences and universities nationwide, along with coaching the Houston Youth Symphony Orchestras trumpet and brass sections to national awards in 2009-2011. 

Cooper has been an active and versatile musician for more than twenty years, performing in orchestras, brass quintets, and various chamber ensembles. His chamber work with the Mirari Brass Quintet has taken him across the United States and he has also appeared with the brass quintets of the Austin and Tulsa symphony orchestras. His chamber duo, Composite Brass, has performed at international conferences—from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to Miami—for the International Trumpet Guild, the International Saxophone Symposium, and the College Music Society. Since moving to Oklahoma in 2019, he has performed as a substitute musician with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Tulsa Symphony, and the Tulsa Ballet. From 2005 to 2019, he performed frequently with the Austin Symphony and Austin Opera orchestras and with the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, and the Houston Grand Opera. Additional orchestral performances include engagements with the Colorado (CO), Wheeling (WV), Mid-Texas, Brazos Valley (TX), and Northwest Arkansas (AR) symphony orchestras. Beyond the classical realm, Cooper has performed with artists such as Peter Gabriel, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Belle and Sebastian and P.D.Q. Bach, to name a few.

Cooper is deeply committed to education. His former students have established successful careers as performers and educators across the United States, from major orchestral positions to elementary music classrooms. Recent student success includes winning auditions for the principal trumpet of the Tulsa Symphony and the United States Navy fleet bands as well as placement into graduate programs across the United States. His students have also auditioned into summer music festivals, nationally, and they have consistently advanced to the live round of the National Trumpet Competition annually, since 2016. For over a decade, he worked extensively with pre-college musicians who went on to earn top placements in the Texas and Oklahoma All-State bands, orchestras, and jazz ensembles, as well as in the National Youth Orchestra and NYO2. Many pre-college students went on to study as music majors and now enjoy careers in music. 

Cooper can be heard on several recordings, including Echo Chamber with the Composite Brass Duo; New Canons as a co-soloist with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas; Wine Dark Sea as an ensemble member and soloist on the Ticheli Clarinet Concerto with the University of Texas Wind Ensemble; and Personality Test with the Mirari Brass Quintet.

Actively engaged in the trumpet community, he has served the International Trumpet Guild and adjudicated for the National Trumpet Competition. Cooper is a Yamaha Artist and proudly endorses Yamaha trumpets.

Research Interests:
Trumpet, trumpet pedagogy, trumpet performance, trumpet literature, brass quintet, trumpet and saxophone duo, orchestra, chamber music, high brass, brass ensemble.