Michael Kris is a Teaching Associate Professor at UNC and is also part of the teaching faculty at Duke University and the prestigious Eastern Music Festival. An active ensemble performer, he is Second Trombone in the Eastern Festival Orchestra, Bass Trombone with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra and Principal Trombone of the North Carolina Opera Orchestra, Carolina Ballet Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. He is a former member of the North Carolina Symphony, serving as both Principal Trombone and Second Trombone and has performed with several orchestras throughout the eastern United States. Apart from his large ensemble work, Mr. Kris is an active soloist and clinician performing and teaching internationally. Most recently, he was a guest clinician at the Universität Mozarteum in Austria and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock, Germany. At the University of North Carolina, he teaches low brass and chamber music and his research focuses on the use of trombone in ensemble music of the late Renaissance and chamber music of the early Baroque. Mr. Kris attended McNeese State University earning a Bachelor of Music Education followed by a Master of Music in Trombone Performance at the Cincinnati College/Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers are William G. Rose and Tony Chipurn, Principal Trombone (retired) of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
