Conductor

The Music of Stevie Wonder | Frost Jazz Orchestra

University of Miami

The Music of Count Basie | Frost Jazz Orchestra

John Daversa is a distinguished trumpet-player, composer, arranger, producer, bandleader and educator. He is also a multiple Grammy Award winner and nominee and the recipient of many other awards and honors. In addition to his active career as a performer and recording artist he is currently Professor and Chair of Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Daversa grew up in a musical household, where he passionately sang and played various instruments from a very young age, eventually picking up the trumpet. Throughout his childhood the family moved several times, residing in Oklahoma, Las Vegas, and Sacramento, and ultimately returned to Los Angeles where he attended Hamilton Academy of Music for his final two years of high school. While still a student he began writing for large and small jazz ensembles and performed regularly with his quartet, Second Generation. It was during this time that he began playing the Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI). As a member of the Monterey All-Star High School Big Band for four years, John toured Japan and performed with iconic guest artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, J. J. Johnson, and Clark Terry. Upon graduating high school, he was recognized with both the Herb Alpert Award and the Italian Heritage Award and soon began pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at UCLA in music composition and performance. Throughout the 1990’s, Daversa continued to be recognized as one of the jazz world’s most promising young performers and composers, winning the National Trumpet Competition, the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Soloist Competition, and the David Joel Miller Award for Composition and Performance, and placing as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Trumpet Competition. During this time he founded and led various ensembles including the Junk Wagon Trio, The D.a.M. Band, which released an album in 1994, and the John Daversa Progressive Big Band, founded in 1996, which recorded Live at Catalina’s in 2000.

Workshop Jazz-Trompete & Jazz-Komposition mit John Daversa

MUK - Music and Arts Private University of Vienna

“Sean Jones embodies the 21st century jazz musician, an experimental, supremely talented
type whose vision and sensibility encourages inclusion rather than separation.” — Amazon.com
Singing and performing as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, Sean
switched from the drums to the trumpet at the age of 10.

Sean Jones & Frost Jazz Orchestra

Monterey Jazz Festival brings together 20 of the most accomplished high school jazz musicians from across the country to form the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (NGJO), directed by GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Gerald Clayton. Established in 1971, tenure in this year's NGJO culminates in a main stage performance in September at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Combo

Monterey County Fairgrounds

The award-winning ensembles join forces to perform repertoire that holds a reverence to tradition and an eye to the future.

Frost Jazz Orchestra & Studio Jazz Band

The award-winning ensemble presents new music for Live Recording!

Conductor

John Daversa

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 9, 2026

The Centennial Set | Frost Jazz Orchestra · Frost School of Music

Past events

Feb 17, 2026

The Music of Stevie Wonder | Frost Jazz Orchestra · Frost School of Music

Jan 22, 2026

The Music of Count Basie | Frost Jazz Orchestra · Frost School of Music

About

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