Mike Ponella

Mike Ponella, trumpeter, received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music. For over twenty five years he has been the lead trumpeter with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, as well as previous lead trumpet/ soloist work for the United Nation Orchestra with Paquito D'Rivera, and also with Slide Hampton + The Jazz Masters. Ponella plays first trumpet with Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, which won a Grammy Award for HBO's soundtrack Recording of Boardwalk Empire (2010). As a free-lance musician, he has played for recordings, radio, television, musical theatre and film, constituting a wide variety of musical styles ranging from performances with Dizzy Gillespie to Maestro Anton Coppola. Ponella is on camera and sound track for Michael Feinstein's American Songbook (2010), and has appeared on radio broadcasts with Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." In August 2013 he was a special guest clinician/trumpeter for a Japan tour, performing his original compositions from his "G.W.B. Shuffle" CD. In HBO's series, Vinyl (2016), Ponella participated in recording and was trumpet instructor/coach on set.