BIO

Jonas Biles is a Trumpet player, active freelancer, and educator who graduated in May 2022 with a Master’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota where he studied with Dr. Jeremy Brekke. He also received a Bachelor’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in the spring of 2019 after studying with Dr. Thomas Pfotenhauer. He is currently teaches adjunct at the University of Minnesota Morris campus as well as keeping an active gig schedule.

Jonas, a Duluth, Minnesota native, comes from a family with a passion for the arts, specifically brass and choral music. Singing since he was very young, he performed in school choirs throughout his K-12 years. He also played piano and violin, but he discovered his true passion when he picked up the trumpet at age 11 where he was first introduced to brass quintet music through playing with his father and three older brothers.

Upon hearing the Canadian Brass play the piece Quintet by Michael Kamen, Jonas fell in love with the sound of the quintet. He has been involved in playing brass quintet music since 2013, performing in places such as the Jersey Gardens Mall (New Jersey), the Liberty Science Center (New Jersey), and on Liberty Island in front of the Statue of Liberty. He most recently played with the Bolley Street Brass, the Graduate Brass Quintet at NDSU.

While in Fargo, in addition to playing with the Bolley Street Brass Jonas has performed with the NDSU Faculty Brass Quintet, NDSU Jazz Ensemble, NDSU Wind Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, various local big bands, and is an active member and founding member of Brass Interference, a New Orleans-Style Brass Band.

Jonas has also performed in many pit orchestras and Opera pits including Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, Oliver! The Musical, Matilda The Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He played in the World Premieres of Proxima for Brass Quintet, O Evening Star (flugelhorn and piano) and Osseo, Son of the Evening Star , (a one-act chamber opera) all composed by his friend, colleague, and fellow student at UMD, William Brueggemann.

In addition, Jonas has played lead trumpet in Jazz Ensemble 1 at UMD, performing with guest artists such as Kenni Holmen, Ron Wilkins, Ernie Watts, Jeff Coffin, Jennifer Parker, Andre Hayward, Dean Sorenson, Russell Pederson, and Sal Lozano. He has also performed with the Big Time Jazz Orchestra, a local big band comprised of musicians from throughout the Northland. During his graduate school tenure he played Lead and solo chairs in the NDSU Jazz Ensemble.

Jonas has also volunteered on many occasions in both jazz and classical settings. Some of these include working for the Head of the Lakes Jazz Festival (UMD) for 4 years, rehearsing the UMD Jazz Ensemble II in the directors absence, recording off campus concerts, directing the UMD Trumpet Ensemble for a semester, and serving as a volunteer trumpet clinician for the Moose Lake Area Jazz Festival for middle and high school area jazz ensembles. During his tenure at NDSU as part of his Graduate Assistantship, he taught the high brass (Trumpet and Horn) portion of the the Brass methods course for undergraduate music education majors and coached one of the undergraduate brass quintets.

At UMD, Jonas studied natural trumpet with Dr. Thomas Pfotenhauer the Summer of 2017 until his graduation in Spring of 2019. In August of 2017, he attended the International Trumpet Making Workshop in Bloomington, Indiana led by Richard Seraphinoff, Bob Barclay, and Michael Münkwitz, and constructed a replica of the 1632 Hanns Hainlein natural trumpet. This piqued Jonas’ interest in the construction of historic trumpets leading him to experiment with making mouthpieces and repairing instruments at home.

In December of 2018 and 2019, Jonas performed first trumpet for Handel’s Messiah with the Ashland Chamber Music Society and also performed 2nd trumpet with the NDSU Choirs in December of 2021. In addition to this, he has also performed the Bach B minor Mass with the UMD Orchestra and choirs and Bach’s Cantata Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (BWV 29) with a local church choir. He also performed Georg Phillip Telemann’s Concerto in D Major for Trumpet as part of NDSU’s Baroque festival in January of 2022.

Apart from his varied performance experience, Jonas has studied recording and sound techniques with Donald Schraufnagel at UMD and has continued to be involved with various recording projects over the past few years. Some of these include recording an off campus Jazz Combo concert (UMD), various personal multi-tracking projects, multi-track recording the NDSU Jazz Ensemble, the NDSU Trumpet Ensemble performing student arrangements, student recitals (including video and live-stream situations), and recording and producing the soundtrack for NDSU Theaters production of Annie (Spring 2021). He is currently employed as an audio and event specialist at Livewire Entertainment and Media Services.

Jonas strives to create soulful and beautiful music. He is currently involved in the following performing groups: Dakota Jazz Ensemble, Brass Interference, and the Fargo-Moorhead Opera.