Eric Devey Music

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.
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.