The Kotas Project

Marie Speziale

Marie Speziale received her Bachelor’s in Music from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in trumpet. She is known as the first woman trumpeter in a major symphony orchestra, Speziale served as Associate Principal Trumpet with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for 32 years starting in 1964. She has played with many other ensembles in Cincinnati including Cincinnati Opera Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Other orchestra’s she’s performed with include Saint Louis Symphony and the Florida Orchestra. Outside of orchestra’s she worked with Monarch Brass Quintet and Monarch Brass Ensemble, studio recordings for the television series Star Trek: Voyager, at Paramount and 20th Century Fox studios, and Summit Brass.

She’s also a pillar for women brass players including past President of the International Women’s Brass Conference,  International Trumpet Guild, Sigma Alpha Iota, Pi Kappa Lambda and Cincinnati MacDowell Society. She has received several honors, including Leading Women in the Arts Award from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition of Women’s Organizations, the Outstanding Woman of the Year in Music Award from the Tampa Tribune and the Sigma Alpha Iota National Leadership award.