Josh Torrey is a freelance low brass artist and teacher based in Chicago. Raised in New York’s Capitol Region, he relocated to Chicago in the fall of 2012 following completion of a BMus in Jazz Studies degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. While attending U of I his primary teacher was Jim Pugh, and he also studied with and performed in ensembles directed by Chip McNeil, Chip Stephens, Dana Hall, and Tito Carillo. Josh also performed with U of I’s Jazz Trombone Ensemble (winners of the 2012 Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble competition) at the 2012 International Trombone Festival in Paris, France.
Since moving to the city, Josh has cultivated an active performing career in both creative and commercial music. He freelances with a wide variety of projects from theater orchestras to party bands, and can be heard regularly with:
The Josh Torrey Nonet, playing his original compositions and arrangments
Brooke and the Nice Things, one of Chicago’s top event and party bands
Blueshift Big Band and Heisenberg Uncertainty Players, two genre-bending modern big bands
The Sam Robinson Sextet, “…a formidable unit based on modern jazz tradition.” (Jeff Cebulski, chicagojazz.com”)
Spocket, an electrified fusion/prog funk project
Josh has also recorded on several albums by Heisenberg Uncertainty Players, Blueshift Big Band, the Sam Robinson Sextet, and Shout Section Big Band.
Other career highlights include touring domestically and internationally with the one and only Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (often playing Tommy’s solos), and playing trombone and tuba for the Chicago premiere of Tom Waits’ opera Woyzeck, produced by Chicago Fringe Opera.
A dedicated educator, Josh has been teaching lessons on trombone, bass trombone, euphonium/baritone, tuba and jazz improvisation at schools in suburban Chicago since 2014, and currently teaches low brass lessons at Hinsdale South High School, Riverside-Brookfield High School, and Lake Zurich High School. His students have been selected to be members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Youth Symphony of DuPage, Illinois All State ensembles, as well as continuing on to collegiate music programs around the midwest.