Yuval Tessman-Bar-On (she/her) is a trumpeter, musicologist, and teacher, and her work often ties these disciplines together. She is currently completing a Master of Music degree program in trumpet performance at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she also works as a TA. Yuval did her undergraduate studies at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, where she completed a double major in trumpet performance and music history and graduated in 2022 with Dean’s Honors and an Outstanding Achievement award in music history. At McGill, Yuval worked as a tutor for the music theory and music history undergraduate core classes. Yuval regularly enjoys performing in symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, and contemporary ensembles and has also performed in jazz ensembles and marching bands.

Yuval is passionate about connecting issues of social justice to her musical endeavors. She is the founder of the Future in Music Program, a mentorship program that is focused on promoting access to high quality education to brass players who are members of underrepresented groups or may not have such access. The program pairs high school brass players who are marginalized on the basis of gender and want to apply to music school with mentors who are students in collegiate music programs. Yuval currently works as the executive director of the organization. As director of the mentorship program, Yuval creates and implements the program curriculum, which is designed to make the college audition process more accessible.

In her musicological work, Yuval’s research is primarily focused on themes of social justice in music, both in popular music and in brass and orchestral music. Her recent work, presented at the 2022 International Women’s Brass Conference, focuses on how gender identity intersects with the instrument one chooses, and how this affects gender-marginalized brass players.