Dr. Joseph Gray is the Associate Director of Bands and trumpet instructor at the University of North Alabama. Before coming to Florence, he served on the music faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and as a noncommissioned officer and senior instrumentalist with the U.S. Army Music Program. During his military service, Dr. Gray was a member of the Army Material Command Band at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama and the Maneuver Center of Excellence Band at Fort Benning, Georgia.

     Dr. Gray is principal trumpet with the Shoals Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with the Huntsville and Chattanooga Symphony Orchestras. He has performed with numerous orchestras across the country, including the New Mexico and Madison Symphony Orchestras and held the position of Principal Trumpet with Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Gray was also a featured soloist with the UNA Baroque Ensemble’s tour of Costa Rica in the Spring of 2019. Some of Dr. Gray’s recordings can be heard on the Naxos label and his performances have been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program “Performance Today”.

     He has been involved in the drum corps activity for 25 years. As a performer, he was a member of the Velvet Knights and Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. As an educator, he has served as the brass caption head of Esperanza Drum and Bugle Corps and as a member of the educational staffs for the Academy and Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps.

     Dr. Gray completed his DMA in trumpet performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music where he was a recipient of the Eugene M. Bolz Fellowship. Dr. Gray completed his Master of Music at the University of New Mexico and his Bachelor of Music at the California State University, Long Beach.  

     He currently resides in Florence, Alabama with his beautiful wife, Michelle, and their three children, Mia, Emmet and Abigail. Dr. Gray is a vintage motorcycle enthusiast and avid home coffee roaster.

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