Josh Deutsch is an American trumpet player and composer. He leads the band Pannonia and the Josh Deutsch Quintet, and performs regularly in a duo with guitarist Nico Soffiato. Deutsch is a founding member of the Queens Jazz Overground. He has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Deutsch is also an educator, teaching privately and at various institutions, including the Queens College CPSM, the University of Oregon, and as a mentor in the Young Composers and Improvisors Workshop.
Deutsch is the leader of the band Pannonia, which he formed in 2011 and whose debut recording, Another Time, Another Place was released in 2014. Downbeat named it a January 2014 editors pick and notes: "This well-planned, beautifully executed program draws on influences from practically everywhere. Deutsch seems to be obsessive on details, and he’s hell-bent on making music that’s just a little different than what you’ve heard before." Deutsch also performs in a duo with guitarist Nico Soffiato that has toured extensively in Italy and the United States. Guitar International hailed their recording Time Gels as "an elegant, fresh take on the timeless tradition" and praised the duo's ability to "perform as a cohesive unit with improvisational vigor and mature musicianship." Deutsch and Soffiato host the 2x3 Series, presenting a trio of diverse duos in a night of separate and collaborative performances at various NYC venues. The trumpeter also plays regularly and has recorded with Argentinian singer/composer Sofia Rei, Pedro Giraudo's Expansions Big Band, the Australian soul/funk band The Hipstones and Nathan Parker Smith's Large Ensemble. Deutsch has also performed with Michael Bates' Outside Sources and the Duke Ellington Big Band directed by Victor Goines. He has presented his own projects at Dave Douglas's Festival of New Trumpet Music as well as at the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle and the Outpost Summer Music Festival in Albuquerque and has appeared in the U.S. at The Jazz Gallery and The Stone in New York City and at Yoshi's in Oakland, among other locations.
Teaching
Deutsch has appeared as a clinician and conducted master classes throughout the U.S. He was on the faculty of the Oregon Festival of American Music's Summer Jazz Academy from 2007 through 2009 and of the University of Oregon Summer Jazz Camp from 2007 to the present. In 2008, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Oregon for his work with large and small jazz ensembles and private improvisation students. He currently offers private instruction in trumpet, piano, improvisation, composition and music theory in New York City where he is on the faculty of the Queens College CPSM and a mentor in the Young Composers and Improvisors Workshop.
Composing
Deutsch writes music in multiple genres and his compositions and arrangements have been performed by artists ranging from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and cellist Ruth Marshall to the Oregon Jazz Ensemble, Ron Miles and Danilo Pérez. He has received commissions from the NPRradio programFrom The Top, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Music Northwest and the Head-Royce School. In addition to having composed hundreds of pieces for various performing ensembles, Deutsch has also written several long-form pieces including "The Ligeti Project," a 12-movement, cross-genre work for jazz septet that has been performed on both the East and West Coasts that is based loosely on György Ligeti's Musica Ricercata.
