Jon Paul Dante
Currently one Asia’s most sought after trumpet artists and brass clinicians, native Bostonian Jon Paul Dante was appointed as Section Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in May of 2013 by Maestro Lan Shui. Previously, he served as Section Principal Trumpet of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington, New Zealand where he also served on the trumpet faculty of the New Zealand School of Music. He is also a member of the Artist Faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
Jon has served as Principal Trumpet for many of Asia’s premiere symphony orchestras, including the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Malaysian Philharmonic where he was hailed by the American Record Guide as being “one of the stars of the MPO”.
Before moving to the Orient, Jon served as Section Principal Trumpet of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons, as well as principal trumpet of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra for 4 seasons. During his tenure with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Jon was a frequent featured soloist and served on the Board of Directors.
Throughout his career, Jon has performed with distinguished artists such as Pavarotti, Van Cliburn, Joshua Bell, Victor Borge, Yanni, James Morrison and Nestor Torrez. Jon has also performed with the Colorado Music Festival, the Bellingham Music Festival, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
An avid music educator, Jon has held positions on the faculties of the Maryland Summer Center for the Arts, the North Shore Conservatory, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Boston Conservatory of Music, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the New Zealand School of Music. He has also been a guest clinician at major conservatories and universities worldwide.
As a recording artist, Jon can be heard on Centaur Records releases “Tapesty-Music of Baroque Masters” and “Shepherd’s Hey” with the Paramount Brass, as well as on two Summit Records releases which feature both Philip Smith and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic. He can also be heard on the Biss and Naxos labels performing the world’s greatest symphonic repertoire. More recently, Jon can be heard as principal trumpet on the soundtrack to Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug’ which was recently released in December of 2013.
Active also both as an arranger and composer, Jon has arranged and composed works for both piano and brass quintet, many of which have been recorded by the Paramount Brass.
Fluent in virtually every musical genre, Jon has performed and recorded with the acclaimed Albuquerque-based ska band Danny Winn and the Earthlings and can be heard on the soundtrack for the award-winning film “Sicko” by Michael Moore. For the decade previous to his pursuit of a symphonic career, Jon was touring extensively throughout the United States and Japan with the Paramount Brass Quintet; an award winning chamber ensemble of which he is both the founder and solo trumpet. The Paramount Brass quickly became one of the most prominent brass ensembles in North America, performing an average of 125 concerts a season as well as conducting teaching residencies at major colleges and universities worldwide.
Away from the trumpet, Jon enjoys golf, photography, boating, everything electronic, and fast motorcycles.
Jon is a trumpet artist and clinician for Conn-Selmer and performs on Bach Stradivarius piston trumpets. He is also proud to be a clinician for B&S Scherzer and plays Scherzer rotary valve trumpets exclusively. For more information, please visit Jon’s website at www.jondante.com.