Slade Trammell was born in North Carolina, where he began piano studies at an early age, giving his first public performance at age ten. Five years later, he was accepted as a pupil of David Brunell at the University of Tennessee.
At his concerto debut with the American Philharmonic Orchestra, critics noted his “technique and rhythmic excitement.” The Knoxville Metro-Pulse later praised his “mastery of tone…coaxing velvety ripples from the fast passages, and solid clear statements from the slower and simpler ones.” Mr. Trammell’s performances–across North America and Europe–continue to meet with such accolades. As a first prize-winner in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition, he made his Italian debut in December 2018 with an appearance at the Teatro Studio, Parco della Musica, in Rome. Other highlights of past seasons include appearances in Cincinnati, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Paris, Salzburg, and Steyr, Austria, where he is a regular guest artist at Kultursommer Schloss Rosenegg. In 2020, in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of women's suffrage in the USA, Mr. Trammell gave the world premiere of Shadows Through the Lattice by Chicago-based composer Blair Boyd, great-grandniece of Harry T. Burn, whose vote was instrumental in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
One of the last pupils of Earl Wild, Mr. Trammell was invited to perform at memorials to the legendary composer-pianist in Pittsburgh and Palm Springs. In August 2011, he had the honor of giving the European premiere of Wild’s Sonata 2000 while concertizing in Austria. He has also studied in New York under Ruth Slenczynska, herself a pupil of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
As a conductor, Mr. Trammell first appeared in public on the podium at the age of seventeen. Shortly thereafter, he was accepted as a pupil of Maestro Serge Fournier, a protégé of Charles Munch. In 2012, he graduated, with distinction in dechiffrage, from the European-American Musical Alliance Summer Institute in Paris.
Mr. Trammell currently serves on the music faculty of Roane State, having formerly served as Coordinator of Music at Hiwassee College.
