Josh Decker is a passionate and creative trumpet player, educator and composer from Columbus, Ohio. After receiving his Masters degree in trumpet performance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he returned to Columbus and completed one year of teaching collegiate trumpet at Ohio Wesleyan University, the very place that he studied as an undergraduate music education major. Josh now lives in Denver Colorado, where he recently won the audition for second trumpet of the Stratus Chamber Orchestra and runs his own brass quintet, Mountain State Brass.
Josh enjoys all music that features the trumpet. Feeling most at home in the orchestra, Josh had the wonderful fortune of playing second trumpet with the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra (Newark, OH), from 2017-2022.
As a trumpeter, Josh has played with The Denver Brass, Stratus Chamber Orchestra, Denver Philharmonic, Denver Municipal Band, Arapahoe Philharmonic, the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, Westerville Symphony Orchestra, Utopia Brass Quintet, Ohio Wesleyan Faculty Brass Quintet, Short North Stage, Capriccio Vocal Ensemble, Dr. Tony’s Original Ragtime Band, Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, The Brass Roots, The Employees of Funk, The Wonderers of Dutch Wonderland, and Mariachi International. Josh is Cofounder and trumpeter of his very own musical group, Mountain State Brass Quintet.
In 2013, Josh made a solo appearance playing the National Anthem at the NCAA Track and Field Finals.
As an educator, Josh has taught hundreds of student musicians the trumpet. In addition to his instruction at Ohio Wesleyan, Josh maintains a large private studio. Many of Josh’s students have played in central Ohio’s illustrious youth ensemble programs and have gone on to studying at the university level. Josh is currently a brass instrument instructor at Parlando School of Musical Arts in Boulder, CO. He is fortunate to work with students from very diverse backgrounds in the Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, and Boulder Valley School Districts.
Josh’s latest musical pursuits have been heavily composition focused. In December of 2022, The world famous Denver Brass played his newly composed work, “Holiday Fanfare and Song.” Subsequently, the group played his composition again in December of 2023, and in that same weekend, the spectacular Colorado Symphony Brass played the piece on their Holiday Brass concert series. Most recently, Josh has written a composition for middle school band entitled “Groove Factory.” The world premier was in April of 2024 and was performed by the Boulder Country Day MS Band.