Morgan Bates is a trumpeter, musicologist, and second-year PhD student and Cota-Robles fellow at UCLA. An active performer, Morgan is a proud member of UCLA’s trumpet studio and the Gay Freedom Band of Los Angeles. They have held professional positions with the Rogue Valley Symphony, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Oregon Brass Quintet, and the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble. Additionally, Morgan is a two-time winner of Dickinson College’s Concerto Competition, placed third in the chamber division of the 2023 International Trumpet Guild’s Ryan Anthony Memorial Trumpet Competition, and has appeared as a featured soloist with the Oregon Mozart Players and the UCLA Wind Ensemble.

Morgan’s musicological research explores constructions of identity in a wide range of musical works, from Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” to Handel’s “Alcina.” Their current work assesses gender play within the multifaceted genre of drag vocal performance. Morgan’s recent paper, “Vocal Transcendence: Performing and Perceiving Transgender Drag Vocal Performance,” was featured at the 2023 AMS/SMT Conference on a trans-exclusive panel. Morgan holds dual master’s degrees in Trumpet Performance and Musicology, with a Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Oregon, and a BA with Departmental Honors in Music from Dickinson College.