John Lake | Trumpet

John Lake is a trumpet player and composer living in New York City, maintaining a busy performance schedule as a jazz soloist and in-demand lead trumpet player. John composes and arranges original music for his own acoustic jazz septet, The John Lake Ensemble, and is a co-leader of the New Alchemy Jazz Orchestra, which has featured such artists as Peter Bernstein, Dick Oatts, and Terrell Stafford.  John's compositions and arrangements have been performed at New York University, University of Wyoming, University of Colorado, Ithaca College, Celebrity Cruises, and many more. 

     Recent large-ensemble performances include lead and section trumpet with the American Ballet Theater Orchestra at Lincoln Center, Michael Feinstein & Tedd Firth Big Band at Jazz At Lincoln Center, Ben Markley Big Band, Fat Cat Big Band, Jihye Lee Jazz Orchestra, Jazzharmonic Orchestra, David Berger Jazz Orchestra, Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band and 8-Bit Big Band, the Danny Jonokuchi Big Band, Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine, Jazzharmonic Orchestra (Miho Hazama & Ron Wasserman), Steven Feifke Big Band, Terazza Big Band (Michael Thomas & Edward Perez), the Seth Weaver Big Band, and is a featured musician of the New York Rangers NHL team.  John has performed at the Peru Jazz Festival, St. Petersburg (Florida) Jazz Festival, Denver Jazz Festival, Jazz Educators' Network Conference, Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), Kinser Jazz Festival, Elsie Fest, MAGFest, and the DC Jazz Festival.

     In the world of popular music and theater, John’s diverse musical talents have afforded him opportunities to perform and record with artists such as Escort, Marc Shaiman, Mac Miller, Alex Newell, Marin Mazzie, Casey Cott, Matthew Morrison, Josh Groban, Chairlift, Kristin Chenoweth, John Lithgow, and David Hyde Pierce.  

     Originally from western Ohio, Lake holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  John has continued his academic interests into his professional career by performing and teaching clinics at high schools and colleges nationwide, and has written for DownBeat magazine’s Woodshed section. 

John plays and endorses XO Brass instruments, and records with Barkley Microphones.