Riley Mulherkar

Riley Mulherkar has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” (The New York Times) and praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on.” Born and raised in Seattle, Riley moved to New York in 2010 to study at The Juilliard School, where he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in 2014 and his Master’s in 2015, receiving the Knowles Prize for Jazz and the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music. He is also an inaugural recipient of Juilliard’s Marks Fellowship. In 2011, Riley was named a “rising jazz artist” by Wynton Marsalis in JET Magazine, and in 2014 was the first recipient of the Laurie Frink Career Grant at the Festival of New Trumpet Music.

Riley has performed at the Umbria Jazz Festival, Jazz à Vienne, and Carnegie Hall, and has shared the stage with Marsalis, Leonard Slatkin, and Dave Douglas, among others. Riley is actively engaged in educational outreach. He has taught at Harlem School of the Arts, and founded the music program at stART Osceola, a summer arts intensive in Florida, where he has taught the past five years. He has also facilitated master classes in Brazil, Mexico, and across the United States.