Jason Levi grew up in a very small rural town in southwestern Pennsylvania and started playing trumpet in 4th grade with the help of his Dad (also a trumpet player). Jason took up messing with computers and chasing girls as hobbies but quickly found that he loved to play the trumpet more than anything. After graduating high school in 1999, he moved to beautiful, scenic Denton, TX to attend the University of North Texas where he earned a BM (cum laude) in jazz trumpet performance in May 2004. It was at that point that he realized he had no idea what good that degree was other than it was a whole lot of fun. Thus, he decided to stay and get a Master of Music Degree, figuring it would be equally as fun and he finished that degree in May 2007. Jason's increasing prowess and interest in business (and desire to maintain his lavish lifestyle) prompted him to begin work on an MBA degree in business, which he completed all but 4 classes of before stopping to pursue his own start-ups.
While working on his MBA, Jason applied for and was accepted into the UNT Professional Leadership Program. Jason was learning "business" in his academic classes, but felt "taking a college business class is a practical and common way to learn the ins and outs of commerce. Unfortunately, they are sometimes slightly out of touch with reality. This is where PLP steps in and bridges the gap between textbook learning and REAL, practical, get-your-hands-dirty business." Because of Jason's involvement in PLP, he was paired with an executive mentor, Bill Wallace, for an academic year. Jason considers his relationship with Bill to be the "most valuable and rewarding experiences" of his life. Through his relationship with Bill and Bill's networking group, Success North Dallas, Jason began to meet and network with successful business professionals throughout Dallas/Fort Worth. The more he attended meetings, the more he was motivated to complete a dream of his ... writing a book.
Jason's book, Fathers of First Trumpet, started out as a project in graduate school. After completing a ten-page scholastic version of the book including only Young and Porcino, he realized that studying these masters improved his own lead playing substantially. He became interested in pursing the topic further, pages grew and Conrad Gozzo was added. Time went on and he realized something important- this resource didn’t yet exist for the general population of lead (first) trumpet players. Jason's excited and proud to have put this together to help educate all ages of lead trumpet players to better understand, appreciate and execute their art.
Jason currently lives in Addison, TX, running his own business ventures during the week and playing the trumpet professionally the rest of the time. Jason says "Life is good and only getting better."
