Local Among International Faculty at Festival Hill

This year’s Festival Institute in Round Top boasts musical faculty from as far away as Belgium, Argentina and even new Zealand.

Amidst the international faculty is a instructor with a decidedly more local background.

“I grew up on a cattle ranch near Winchester,” laughs Kyle Sherman, who is in his first year teaching at Festival Hill.

Sherman was actually a student at Festival Hill in the summer of 2008 early in his career as a standout trumpet player.

“It’s great to be back on campus,” Sherman said last week. “I feel like I’ve come full circle.”

Sherman is the grandson of Raymond and Marie Schulz, who still live near Winchester.

Kyle’s parents were the late Richard and Diana Sherman. He’s also related to La Grange’s George and Brenda Rainosek, former owners of the Coz Movie Theater.

Sherman went to elementary at Emmanuel Lutheran in Giddings where his mom was a church organist and choir director, and her love of music rubbed off on him at an early age.

His dad was a trumpet player, and Kyle followed in his footsteps when he started attending middle school in La Grange where he was a trumpet player in band and was taught by legendary LGISD band directors Ed and Ann Lowes.

Sherman attended high school in Georgetown and his music career blossomed from there.

He is an alumnus of the Yale School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Tanglewood Music Center and the National Repertory Orchestra. He has appeared with the Dallas Symphony, and as a soloist with the Garland, Arlington, and Las Colinas symphony orchestras. He has also performed on the Broadway national tours of the Book of Mormon, Porgy & Bess, and Matilda, among others.

Sherman regularly appears as a clinician and recitalist at universities throughout Texas and the United States and since 2016 has been with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trumpet. He lives in Forth Worth, but said he hopes to return to Festival Hill in future summers to teach the next generation of top musicians.