Brass and Percussion Shine at the Virée ^{Summer 2025}

Principal trumpet with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 1995, he has been featured frequently with the OSM, including tours to South America and at the Lincoln Center in New York.Paul has been featured with orchestras worldwide, including English Chamber Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Venice Baroque Orchestra and Eastman Wind Ensemble. Merkelo’s first solo recording, A Simple Song was ranked #1 in Quebec’s classical recording chart in 2000. In 2004, Analekta released a highly praised second CD, Baroque Transcriptions, which was nominated by ADISQ for Best Classical Album of the Year. French Trumpet Concertos with OSM and Kent Nagano was nominated by the JUNO Awards in 2016. He is the founder of the Paul Merkelo Scholarship.

James Box caught the music bug watching military bands in his childhood. His grandfather, who conducted a brass band, was his first teacher. At the age of 15, James joined the Memphis Youth Symphony and went on to study at the Southern Methodist University and the Cleveland Institute of Music with Marta Hofacre, John Kitzman, James DeSano, and Steve Witser. His first concert with the OSM comprised a performance of Ravel’s Bolero, in which he held down the famous trombone solo part. In addition to his performance career, James Box teaches trombone at McGill University.