Nikola Tomić

Finding a Way In: Introducing Jazz and Improvisation in the Lesson Setting

Nikola Tomić is a versatile trumpet performer and educator with more than twenty-five years of  professional experience. Based in Western New York, Nikola previously lived and worked in  New York’s Capital Region and New York City, performing at venues including the Jazz  Gallery, Swing 46, the Drawing Room, the Cutting Room, and the Miller Theatre at Columbia  University. He has performed with orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Binghamton  Philharmonic, and Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony, and in jazz groups led by David Berger,  Chuck Israels, Bobby Previte, Walter White, and Erica Seguine, among others. Festival  appearances include the Umbria Jazz Festival (Perugia, Italy), the Rochester International Jazz  Festival, the Tri-C JazzFest (Cleveland, Ohio), and the International Cervantino Festival  (Guanajuato, Mexico).  

Nikola serves as assistant professor of trumpet at SUNY Fredonia, having taught previously at  the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell  University, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and the Ithaca College School of  Music. Nikola’s pedagogical articles “Upward Spiral” (March 2020) and “Alternative  Approaches to Warming Up” (June 2019) were published in the ITG Journal, to which he has  also contributed more than two dozen CD reviews.  

Nikola holds D.M.A. and M.M. degrees in Jazz Studies & Contemporary Media from the  Eastman School of Music and a B.M. in trumpet performance from Ithaca College. In addition to  long-term trumpet study with Clay Jenkins and Frank Gabriel Campos, Nikola has benefitted  from private lessons with Brian Pareschi, Douglas Prosser, Marvin Stamm, Byron Stripling,  Vincent DiMartino, Gary McCheyne, and Donald Byrd.