Dr. Langston Fitzgerald III, professor of trumpet at Penn State, played trumpet with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 2003. Fitzgerald has played extra with the National Symphony and performed as assistant principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He is principal trumpet and musical contractor of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Orchestra, and principal trumpet of the Baltimore Opera Company Orchestra. In addition, he is first trumpet and founder of both the Giavanni and the Potomac brass quintets. His free-lancing in Baltimore and Washington has included performing at three presidential inaugurations and three "Christmas in Washington" nationally televised specials. He helped to contract and played co-principal trumpet at the nationally televised millennium celebration at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining the Penn State faculty, Fitzgerald taught trumpet at Catholic University. He currently teaches at both the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Penn State. He was lecturer at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland at College Park. Fitzgerald served as assistant professor of trumpet, coordinator of the brass department, and orchestra conductor at Howard University. He has also taught trumpet at Morgan State University, the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, University of the District of Columbia, Towson State University, and Western Maryland College.

He is a graduate of Howard University (B.M.E.) and Catholic University of America (M.M. and D.M.A.). He is a member of the International Trumpet Guild and is on the board of the International Women's Brass Conference. Fitzgerald is also a member of the American Federation of Musicians in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.