Keith Snell
Music Appreciation Instructor
Keith received his B.A.from the California State University at Northridge and his M.A. from California State University at Long Beach. Both degress were in Trumpet Performance and Instrumental Conducting.
As a freelance trumpet player, Keith has performed solo recitals throughout the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. He has played in numerous chamber and symphony orchestras, including the Pacific Symphony, Pacific Opera, Glendale Symphony and the Burbank Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed on a variety of recordings for radio, motion picture and television soundtracks. In 1979 Keith was appointed Director of the internationally renown California Brass Ensemble, a position which he held until for over twenty years.
A prolific composer and arranger, Keith has published more than 600 compositions and arrangements. From 1980 to 1987, he served as editor for a series of educational publications by Belwin Mills and Columbia Pictures Publications. He has also authored two books on the history of early trumpets as well as produced several important recordings of performances on historical instruments.
Keith has served as an instructor and lecturer on the faculties at the California State Universities at Los Angeles, Northridge and Long Beach. In addition to his current assignments at Cuesta College as a lecturer in Music History and Theory, he is also serving on the faculty of the music departments at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo where he teaches trumpet and and directs the Brass Chamber Music program.