Dr. William Landon is a versatile trumpet player, educator, and arts administrator based in Kansas City, Missouri. He is the Associate Principal Trumpet in the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, plays substitute trumpet in the Kansas City Symphony, and is a member of Kansas City’s premier party band, Lost Wax (Voted as Kansas City’s 2025 Band of the Year). He holds a DMA in Trumpet Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he was a member of the graduate fellowship brass quintet, Volker Brass. As a member of Volker Brass, he performed educational outreach in the Kansas City Area, completed numerous recording projects, and won first place at the National Brass Quintet Competition in San Marcos, Texas. As an avid chamber musician, his thesis project focused on creating an extensive catalogue of works for mixed-instrumentation chamber music with trumpet as well as completing and performing his original orchestration of Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus; XV: Le Baiser de l’enfant Jésus for a 13-piece mixed chamber ensemble. In addition to his studies at UMKC, Dr. Landon also served as a development intern with the Kansas City Symphony.

Prior to moving to Kansas City he earned his MM in Trumpet Performance as well as a certificate in Arts Administration at the University of Colorado-Boulder where he served as a graduate teaching assistant. While in Boulder, Dr. Landon won first place at the National Trumpet Competition as a member of CU-Boulder’s small trumpet ensemble as well as being named a quarter-finalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As a teaching assistant he coordinated and secured funds to invite several guest artists in a series entitled ‘Female Brass Pioneers’ in addition to establishing a newsletter to connect with CU-Boulder trumpet alumni and supporters.

Dr. Landon earned his undergraduate degree in music education at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. As a student at Messiah, he had ample opportunities to explore a broad base of interests such as arranging, recording technology, and jazz improvisation among others. As the bandleader of Messiah College’s Jazz Fusion Combo, he started a regular jam session at the Student Union, attracting musicians from across the Central Pennsylvania area. Excited by combining popular music with the jazz idiom, he wrote several arrangements for the combo of hits such as Childish Gambino’s Redbone, Sam Smith’s Stay With Me, and Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls.

As an educator, Landon has taught students of all ages as a private lesson teacher, chamber coach, and high brass tech. Dr. Landon’s students regularly have won positions in district, regional, and all-state ensembles as well as winning state solo and ensemble competitions. In addition to these competitions, his students are also in collegiate music programs across the country and hold positions in United States Military Bands.

In addition to his musical activities, he loves to play ice hockey in adult leagues around Kansas City several times each week, cook new recipes, and spend quality time looking off of the balcony with his two cats.