Reginald Chapman

Reginald Chapman is an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and educator born in Williamsburg, Virginia. His indie, commercial, and jazz sensibilities have afforded him opportunities to perform at locations ranging from New York City to the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California and internationally in Canada and France. A founding and current member of the No BS! Brass, Reginald's compositions, vocals and bass trombone sounds can be heard on Where's Stefan (2007), Alive in Richmond (2009), No BS! (2010), and the forthcoming album Brass Knuckles (2015). Reginald has performed with No BS! Brass across the country, including the inaugural Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in Wisconsin and the NPR Music offices. As a multi-instrumentalist, brandishing the tuba, harmonica, and bass trombone, Reginald has performed and in some cases toured with artists such as Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, The Temptations, Matthew E. White, the Mountain Goats, Elsinore, Sycamore Brass, Tim Barry, and Montreal’s Rachel Therrien . In 2013, he was a member of the Disney All-American College Band in Disneyland.

Reginald's musical experiences are wide-ranging and cross-genre. In the classical arena he has had the opportunity to play with the Richmond Symphony, the Champaign Urbana Symphony, the Heartland Festival Orchestra, and the Prairie Ensemble. In addition to performing, Reginald has since contributed his arranging and composing skills to various projects including UIUC Concert Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Trombone Ensemble, UIUC Black Chorus, Elisnore, Rebecca Rego and The Trainmen, No BS Brass and UTV.Chamber. Most recently, Reginald performed his original compositions at the Montréal Jazz Festival as part of the Jazz Composers Series in July, 2015. Reginald’s Current projects include the Reginald Chapman Group and an anticipated album and music series from Pressure Fit: Trombone Base.

Reginald earned his Bachelor’s degree in Classical Music Performance at VCU under the direction of Ross Walter and Rex Richardson. While completing his Master’s degree in Jazz Trombone Performance under the advisement of Jim Pugh at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign (UIUC), he was a member of the award-winning Jazz Trombone Ensemble. Reginald is currently on sabbatical leave from a Doctoral degree in Jazz Bass Trombone Performance with a cognate in Classical Compositions from UIUC. He presently teaches Small Jazz Ensembles, bringing to Virginia Commonwealth University