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Josh Deutsch

Trumpeter / Composer / Educator

About Me

Trumpeter/Composer Josh Deutsch has established himself as a versatile and unique voice in New York’s music scene. Equally comfortable as a leader and sideman, Deutsch has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia.

Deutsch leads the band Pannonia, whose forthcoming album “Another Time, Another Place” will be released in 2013, and who can be heard performing regularly in and around New York. His duo project with guitarist Nico Soffiato has toured extensively in Italy and the U.S., and their debut CD “Time Gels” received high praise. Matthew Warnock of Guitar International calls Time Gels “an elegant, fresh take on the timeless (duo) tradition”, noting that “these two musicians perform as a cohesive unit, with improvisational vigor and mature musicianship.” Deutsch and Soffiato host the 2x3 series, which presents a diverse range of duos that perform and collaborate together.

Deutsch can be heard with Argentinian singer/composer Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, the Australian soul/funk band The Hipstones, and Nathan Parker Smith’s Large Ensemble. Deutsch has also performed with Pedro Giraudo’s Expansions Big Band, Michael Bates’ Outside Sources, and the Duke Ellington Big Band directed by Victor Goines. Deutsch has appeared twice with his own projects on the Festival of New Trumpet Music, directed by Dave Douglas, as well as the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle and the Outpost Summer Music Festival in Albuquerque. Deutsch has performed at some of the top venues in the country, including the Stone and the Jazz Gallery in New York and Yoshi's in Oakland. Josh was a two-time winner of the Reno International Jazz Festival’s Outstanding College Trumpeter award, in 2008 and 2009, as well as Downbeat Magazine’s 2008 Student Music Awards College Jazz Soloist winner.

Deutsch is a composer in multiple genres, and his compositions and arrangements have been performed by artists from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Ruth Marshall to the Oregon Jazz Ensemble, Ron Miles and Danilo Pérez. He has received commissions from “From the Top” radio show, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Music Northwest and the Head-Royce School. In addition to hundreds of pieces for various performing ensembles, Deutsch has written several larger form works, including “The Ligeti Project”, a twelve movement cross-genre work for jazz septet, based loosely around Györgi Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata, which has been performed on both the East and West Coasts.

As an educator, Deutsch has experience with students and ensembles at all levels. In 2008, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Oregon, for work with large and small jazz ensembles and private improvisation students. Deutsch has appeared as a clinician and given masterclasses throughout the country, and been on the faculty of the Oregon Festival of American Music’s Summer Jazz Academy from 2007 through 2009 and the University of Oregon Summer Jazz Camp from 2007 to the present. Josh teaches private trumpet, piano, improvisation, composition and music theory lessons in New York City. He is a mentor in the Young Composer and Improviser Workshop and a member of the educational group Music Crossing Borders in New York.

A native of Seattle, Deutsch started as a pianist and composer, before finding an affinity for trumpet in the award-winning jazz bands at Washington Middle School and Garfield High School. Deutsch went on to complete a Bachelor's Degree in jazz studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied with Danilo Pérez, Bob Brookmeyer, John McNeil, Allan Chase and composer Lee Hyla. A three-time participant at the Banff International Jazz Workshop, Deutsch worked closely with such musicians as Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas and Kenny Werner. In 2006, Deutsch was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship to the University of Oregon, and earned a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance and Composition in the spring of 2009. He currently resides in Queens, New York, and is a member of the Queens Jazz Overground, a collective dedicated to making Queens a destination for live improvised music.