Dr. Eric Devey is a trumpet player, composer, and music educator from Salt Lake City, currently residing in Central Illinois. He enjoys a balance of working with his growing trumpet studio and performing in a colorful range of bands and styles. His students have placed increasingly well in state-level solo competitions and have been featured in the all-state bands of Illinois, Oregon, Washington State, Utah, and Massachusetts.  Five have received music scholarships, and two have gone on to be career musicians themselves.

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In his performance career, Eric has been hired to travel the country with orchestras, jazz bands, and a variety of contemporary ensembles playing Afro-Caribbean, Afrobeat, Flamenco, Reggae, Blues, Hip Hop music, and more. His improvisation can be heard on the The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective's Fiesta at Caroga (En Vivo), which appeared on JazzWeek's top 50 jazz albums for 2024 and #1 on RootsMusicReport. His composing and arranging commissions are featured on several label-released albums, such as Rachel Sumner's 2024 Grammy nominated single, “Radium Girls (Curie Eleison).” His debut solo album The Year Without A Summer narrates Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in a six part programmatic work featuring original lyrics, and influences from jazz, flamenco, Afro-Cuban, and progressive rock.

 

In 2024, Eric published the most comprehensive research to date on renowned American trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire for his doctoral thesis at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign.

 

Eric holds a BM from the University of Utah and MM & DMA from the University of Illinois. His assistantship allowed him to bring his compositions, arrangements, and expertise to the university's Jazz Band III as director, and to individual students as a trumpet instructor. ​