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Ray Larsen is a trumpeter and composer whose music traverses jazz, improvised, chamber, and other styles of American music.

He has released eight albums as a leader, including work for large and small ensembles, sound collage, and layered recording. His collection earned a place in Bandcamp’s for its “view into possible futures”. In 2021, he began releasing , an ongoing political work of collaged audio drawn from the archives of the U.S. Library of Congress. His most recent project, Brooklyn-based chamber quartet Wish, premiered at the 2023 and features a growing body of contrapuntal work written for , and . Their first album is slated for release in 2026.

Ray’s other work includes several long-form pieces for large chamber ensembles (, , 3 Poems By Emily Dickinson, When Mountains Blow) and a treasury of tuneful sketches for trumpet trio , free jazz collective , duo project (with accordionist Josh Hou), and various other small group settings. Ray’s music can be found on , , and .

Ray is a mainstay in the projects of new music luminary , including , Electric Circus, The Royal Room Collective, the Wayne Horvitz Ensemble, , Side Pocket, Motel 7, the What’s Going On Festival, Wayne’s residency at The Stone, and others. He has also worked with , , , , , , , , and Fred Radke, , , , , and the .

His work has been recognized with Awards for Northwest Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year (2025), Emerging Artist of the Year (2015), and Northwest Recording of the Year (with Chemical Clock, 2014), as well as a Artist Residency.

Ray is a professor at , where he teaches music theory, ensembles and trumpet performance. He also runs a twice-weekly concert series at in ¿ìèÊÓƵ’s Montlake neighborhood. Alongside educator , he co-founded the beginning band program, where he taught 4th and 5th grade music for five years.

Ray studied with and and holds degrees in music (MM, BM) and conservation biology (BS) from the University of Washington. He co-founded the Improvised Music Project and IMPfest.

Ray is a triplet, a fifth generation ¿ìèÊÓƵ-ite, and a performing artist.