Paul Merkelo is a Juno-nominated artist with six solo recordings under the Sony and Naxos labels. He has been the solo trumpeter with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) since 1995 and is the first soloist chosen to record a feature album with the orchestra. He has also served as a guest principal trumpeter with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with numerous conductors, such as Leonard Bernstein, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, and Valery Gergiev.
Paul Merkelo’s first solo recording, A Simple Song, was ranked #1 on Quebec’s classical recording chart in 2000. In 2004, Analekta released a highly praised second CD, Baroque Transcriptions, which was nominated by ADISQ in the category of Best Classical Album of the Year. French Trumpet Concertos with OSM and Kent Nagano was nominated by the JUNO Awards as the Best Classical Album of the Year (Soloist with Large Ensemble) in 2016.
Paul Merkelo is on the faculty at the Music Academy in Santa Barbara, California, and the OAcademy, a cutting-edge online education platform eligible for diploma accreditation. He is on the board of directors for the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (Canada).