Excellence is not a destination you finally arrive at. It is a standard you choose to practice in every room you enter. That conviction has shaped everything I have built. It started with a trumpet at age eleven, grew through two degrees across stages and classrooms and continues in the precise work I show up to do today.
This is that story.
Educator Biography
Tyler Bouttavong, MM
Brass (Trumpet) Specialist | Band & Orchestra Director
“Tyler Bouttavong doesn't teach students how to play trumpet. He teaches them how to be great at something and how to build a life that reflects that greatness.”
Mr. Bouttavong is a Band and Orchestra Director and Brass Specialist based in Delaware, serving 4th and 5th grade students at Newark Charter School. He also leads the Delaware Brass Institute, his private teaching practice founded in 2016. Across both settings, his work is grounded in a single conviction: joy, dedication and self-awareness without debilitating self-doubt are what produce musicians who last.
His approach is not driven by ego or the performance of results. Mr. Bouttavong does not push students toward achievement simply to reflect well on himself. Instead, he models excellence visibly and lets students choose it. He meets every student exactly where they are. Whether a student is chasing All-State honors or building a lifelong relationship with their instrument, he guides them because he knows firsthand what it costs to find your way without a map. That same standard carries into the classroom. He directs four ensembles and creates an environment that is high-expectation, healthy and safe for every student in the room.
A first-generation musician who earned his degrees entirely on scholarship, Mr. Bouttavong built his career through the relentless work ethic modeled by his parents, a deep humility and an openness to being shaped by the greatness of others. He was mentored by educators and performers who demanded excellence without cruelty. That lineage lives in how he shows up for his own students every day. His mentor, veteran music educator Dr. Jessica Horne-Greene, continues to influence his classroom systems, rehearsal design and professional growth.
The results speak clearly. Mr. Bouttavong's students have earned placement in honor and All-State ensembles, received collegiate music scholarships and gone on to become music educators themselves. He previously served as a Brass Teaching Artist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's OrchKids program and continues to present trumpet masterclasses for advancing high school musicians in the Middle Tennessee region. He also serves as a contracted high brass instructor at Sanford School.
Mr. Bouttavong holds a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Music from Middle Tennessee State University. He earned his teaching certification through the University of Delaware's Alternative Routes to Certification program.
“You have to be great at something if you want true success and a life that brings you peace.”
'“We are all notes in this symphony of life. I just happen to play my part on the trumpet.”
Performer Biography
Tyler is a freelance trumpet performer active across the Philadelphia, Delaware and Maryland corridor. The trumpet has been his primary voice since he was eleven years old. It is a relationship built on genuine love for the instrument, deep respect for the craft and a clear tone that reflects decades of intentional practice. He performs because there is nowhere else he would rather be. That energy comes through every time he plays.
He has performed with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Music City Brass Ensemble and appeared internationally with the Nanjing Hollywood Film Music Orchestra. His experience spans chamber repertoire, commercial settings, musical theatre and orchestral engagements. This instrument has taken him across the country and around the world. Every one of those experiences was earned through a commitment to the craft that began long before the stages did.
That commitment traces back to a large Laotian family in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Music filled every gathering, but no one had ever pursued it professionally. Tyler was the first. He is the only person in his family to pick up an instrument and build a life around it. His late father's belief in him never wavered. That foundation of hard work, pride and love for the music still anchors everything he does on stage today.
His current artistic focus is expanding into solo performance and self-produced multitrack ensemble recordings. This is a body of work built entirely on his own terms. The direction reflects a natural evolution of his identity as an artist. It is a deliberate commitment to creating in spaces where the trumpet is the full story.
Tyler understands the weight this identity carries. He knows the pressure, the self-doubt and the moments where love for the craft gets tangled with expectation. He meets those moments with mindfulness rather than force. The trumpet rewards presence and punishes tension. The mind behind the music must be as prepared as the embouchure. That is not just a performance philosophy and is how he processes the world.
A first-generation musician who funded his entire education through scholarships, Tyler was performing and teaching professionally before finishing his undergraduate degree. His principal teachers include Dr. Michael Arndt, Mark Clodfelter, Mike George and Carol Strayer. He holds a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Music from Middle Tennessee State University.
The Person
I was born and raised in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. My Laotian parents came to this country with almost nothing and built a life here through sheer will. They did not carry wealth or comfort. They carried the conviction that the next generation would have what they did not. That conviction shaped everything that followed.
My family does not use many words. I have come to understand that silence as its own kind of devotion. Their support showed up in presence rather than declarations. It was a garage where the lights stayed on late into the night because my parents never once told me to stop practicing. It was running through scales in a parking lot while waiting to drive my younger brother home from football practice. Nobody made a moment out of it at the time. After every school concert, my late father always had dinner ready. I see now how much was given in those quiet, unremarkable hours. His voice telling me to work hard has never gone quiet.
Beyond my immediate family is an extended network of relatives who showed up for me in ways I do not take for granted. I hold all of it with an open hand. I value the support that came easily and the relationships that took patience to understand. Life shapes us through both.
None of this happened in isolation. The teachers who shaped me gave more than instruction. They gave their belief in me before I fully believed in myself. I carry that forward with every student I teach. The friends I made along the way on stages, in practice rooms and in the in-between moments are why I would choose this journey again. I do not move through this work alone. I stopped pretending I ever did.
Rooted in the Lao Theravada Buddhist tradition, I approach performance and teaching through a lens of mindfulness, intentional growth and non-attachment. I no longer chase outcomes. I try to no longer hold on to what has passed. I trust the process, do the work and let the results speak.
I am based in Wilmington, Delaware. My husband and I have built a life together here. That stability grounds me in something real outside of the music. It is exactly what allows me to show up fully for my students and audiences every time.