Carole Dawn Reinhart was born in Roselle, New Jersey on Dec. 20th, 1941. Her mother played trombone and started her daughter on the slide cornet at age two and a half. By the time Reinhart was 7, she was playing duets in concert with her older brother, who was an accomplished trumpeter. At age 10, she received a scholarship to study with Edward Treutel at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. She was first chair in New Jersey’s All-State Bands and Orchestras. At age 16, she was commissioned as the youngest and only woman bandmaster in the Salvation Army, and made her first international appearance as guest soloist and conductor at a youth congress in Toronto, Canada.
After graduating from high school, Reinhart received a symphony orchestra scholarship to the University of Miami, where she worked under Fabian Sevitzky and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts. A Fulbright scholarship then took her to study with Helmut Wobisch in Vienna, where she was the first woman brass player to achieve the coveted “Reifezeugnis” with honors. Reinhart then returned to New York to complete her education at the Juilliard School of Music, where she was first trumpet in the Juilliard Orchestra and received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Science degrees. Following graduation, Reinhart played regularly in the orchestra at Radio City Music Hall and in Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra. She continued as a Getzen clinician soloing with high school and college bands and various orchestras, and appeared on numerous TV shows, including the “Tonight Show”, the “Mike Douglas Show” and several Al Hirt “Fanfare” shows. In 1968, she performed for American servicemen on a USO tour of Asia during the Vietnam war.
In 1971, Reinhart moved to Berlin, Germany where she played studio sessions, filled in as principal trumpet at the “Deutsche Oper”, and built up her solo career with symphony and chamber orchestras, averaging 125 concerts a year, as well as television performances and radio recordings. In addition she made solo albums for Deutsche Grammophon and BASF with the Munich Philharmonic, German Bach Soloists, Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra and Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra. Her concert tours have taken her throughout Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, the United States, Canada, and Australia, where she performed in Melbourne with the Australian Symphony for over 100,000 people with “live” national television coverage.
In 1983, Reinhart was offered a professorship at the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1994, the Vienna University Press published the book, “Carole Dawn Reinhart – Aspects of a Career”, which is now available from IWBC in an updated 3rd edition with CD. (<generalmanager@myiwbc.org> Proceeds go to IWBC) After a 40 year performance career, Reinhart ceased concertizing in 1996 but continues to be active teaching at the university in Vienna, giving master classes around the world, and serving as a juror for competitions. In 2009, with the dissertation theme, “Women Brass Musicians”, she earned her PhD. Reinhart, a founding member of ITG who served on the ITG Board of Directors and performed at the 1st International Brass Conference held in Montreux, Switzerland in 1976, is the longest affiliated Getzen playing artist, since “Doc” Severinsen gave her a Getzen trumpet on the “Tonight Show” in 1964.
