Erik Jekabson

Erik is a Bay Area Musician, currently living in North Berkeley. He just graduated in May 2006 from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a master's degree in composition and is now working as a freelance composer, arranger and trumpeter, leading his own bands as well as playing with bands like the Happy Hour, the Kenny Dorham Project, the Fred Randolph Quintet, Realistic Orchestra, Mitch Marcus Quintet +13, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet-Lickers, and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra. Erik is also currently teaching at the Jazzschool, the San Francisco Waldorf Middle School, and City College of Berkeley. Erik moved to San Francisco in July 2003 after spending the last five years in Brooklyn, New York, and putting out his debut solo CD “Intersection” on the Fresh Sound/New Talent label. His groups performed in venues such as The Knitting Factory, the Cornelia Street Cafe, HERE Performing Arts Space, and Jazz at Detour. He also was a member of the Howard Fishman Quartet, which performed their music in such venues as the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Joes Pub at the Public Theater, and the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, as well as touring throughout the northeast. Erik also played with singer/songwriter Amy Kohn, Justin Mullen's Delphian Jazz Orchestra, jazz singer Vanessa Trouble, the Sean Smith Quartet, the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, in the Off-Broadway show “The Jazz Singer” , and spent a year on the road with pop singer John Mayer

. As a composer, Erik graduated with honors in orchestration from the conservatory, and also won the Conservatory's 2004 Kris Getz award (for composing for young musicians) and 3rd place in the 2005 SFCM art song competition. He's scored music for the award-winning documentary “Radio Grito”, orchestrated for the Trinity Lyric Opera Company, and was composer and bandleader for Killing My Lobster's “...Takes A Cruise”. While in NY, Erik presented concerts of his chamber music at the Knitting Factory, Cornelia Street Café, and was commissioned to write compositions for the 2001 and 2002 HERE Arts Centers “American Living Room” Festival, as well as being composer-in-residence for the modern dance company Tapfusion for 2001. Growing up in Berkeley, CA, Erik began playing recorder at age 7, and at age 10 also began studying clarinet and trumpet. He played in the Berkeley High School Jazz Band, and was able to tour Japan with the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Big Band in 1991. That same year, Erik moved to Ohio, where he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. While at Oberlin, he went on two tours of the southern U.S., playing in major cities in order to bring attention to Oberlin's jazz program. It was on these tours that Erik discovered New Orleans, where he settled in 1994, after getting his bachelors degree. Erik spent the next four years in freelancing in New Orleans, as well as forming the New World Funk Ensemble with guitarist Todd Duke, which released a CD on the Turnipseed label and performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Erik also led his own small- jazz groups in venues such as Snug Harbor and composed and played with the funk band Galactic. He toured France with French organist Eddy Louiss, and played with the Woody Herman, Kermit Ruffins, Al Belleto and New Orleans All-Star Big Bands.