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Jonathan Saraga

Trumpeter|Flugelhornist|Composer|Arranger|Educator|Producer|Doctor of Musical Arts

About Me

New York City-based trumpeter, composer and Doctor of Musical Arts, Jonathan Saraga, is a Blue Truffle Music and Fresh Sound Records recording artist. He took 1st place in the 2007 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and competed as a finalist in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. He has been awarded selected participation in the 2011 School for Improvisational Music Summer Intensive Program, the 2015 Banff International Summer Intensive Program in Jazz and Creative Music, and the 2019 Banff Early Fall Musicians in Residence program.

Jonathan received the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award presented by the ASCAP Foundation in 2016, was a 2-time Semi-Finalist as well as a Winner in the International Songwriting Competition in 2016 and 2017, and achieved finalist status in the 2019 New Jazz Works grant presented by Chamber Music America. In 2020 he was one of three trumpeters to make it to the final round of auditions for the GRAMMY-winning Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra’s 4th Trumpet Chair, and was selected to present at the International Society for Improvised Music conference (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music-Melbourne, Australia) and the Association for Popular Music Education (APME) conference (Edinburgh Napier University-Edinburgh, Scotland). Also in 2020, Saraga received a commission from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, as well as grants from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the University of Colorado Boulder, Music Advisory Board, the Actors Fund/Local 802 Musicians Union, the Jazz Foundation of America, the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, and the Recording Academy/MusiCares.

Since 2006, Saraga has performed throughout Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and across the U.S. as a leader and in ensembles led by highly acclaimed artists such as Steve Coleman, Henry Cole, Maria Schneider, The Mingus Big Band, Remy Le Boeuf, Darcy James Argue, Orrin Evans, Jihye Lee, Migiwa Miyajima, Jason Marshall, Manuel Valera, Josh Evans, Jimmy Greene, Tyshawn Sorey, Eric Bergen and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra to name a few. He teaches for NYC-based organizations such as The Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, The Gramercy Brass Orchestra of New York, New York Ensemble Classes, Jazz Empowers and The New York Jazz Academy, and has served as a Graduate-Part Time Instructor for the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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My Jazz Story

I am passionate about allowing music to speak for itself, and I am dedicated to refining my craft in order to further express myself and express truth in the most sincere way I can. I am continuously striving to remember my relationship with the infinite and to play music with a vision of that very place; a place of infinite possibility. I believe that music is a gateway to something unexplainable; to a place where we all come from, and where we all are moving toward. It is a blessing and a miracle to have the opportunity be able to share that understanding with you, by exploring the phenomena of sound, and by expressing it through the beauty of human expression. As Hazrat Inayat Khan exclaims, "music seems to be the bridge over the gulf between form and the formless." Music truly seems to be a place that we, as a race, as spirit can go to re-connect with what it is that we really are, beyond the barrier of flesh. In colaboration with other musicians who have a common goal, I wish you to join us, as we carry the majesty of music through the familiar, and into the unknown.

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