Goeff Gallante, the 14-year-old cornet, trumpet & flugelhorn phenomenon, returns to the Mainstay in Rock Hall Maryland on Saturday April 18 at 8:00 p.m., this time as leader of his own quartet. Admission is $20.
Geoff Gallante gets a lot of attention because of his age but he deserves attention for the quality, depth and emotion of his playing. After several memorable guest slots at the Mainstay, the most recent as the guest leader of Max’s Mainstay All-Stars in 2014, he returns as the leader of his own quartet featuring some of Washington D.C.’s finest, well-seasoned rhythm section players: Robert Redd on piano, Tommy Cecil on bass and Lenny Robinson on drums. This will be an evening of straight-ahead jazz and hard swinging standards spiced with a twist of bop.
One of the most celebrated young musicians in the world today; Geoff found his older brother’s trumpet at age four and was first written about in the Washington Post shortly thereafter. He had been playing less than a year on a pint-sized trumpet but was already keeping up with middle schoolers at a music camp.
Over the next few years, he graduated to a full size trumpet and as a child prodigy, garnered thousands of YouTube views. He has performed on prominent stages including at the White House and the Kennedy Center and alongside distinguished artists all across the country– as acclaimed soloist with concert bands, brass bands and pops orchestras, as featured jazz performer and national anthem performer, as church soloist and now as the leader of his own quartet.
His network TV appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC’s Today show and the CBS Early Show. His performance at the Mainstay last year attracted the attention of Voice of America who did two features about him.
As a ‘traditional’ jazz player, Gallante is a member of the D.C. based award-winning Capital Focus Jazz Band and as a big band trumpeter he plays in the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra. The former is geared to college-age musicians; the latter is for high-school musicians. Both groups made exceptions for Gallante and welcomed him at 9 years old..
As a contemporary, straight-ahead jazz performer, Gallante has shared the stage with such jazz icons as Maynard Ferguson, Dick Hyman and Bucky Pizzarelli and such distinguished jazz musicians including Earl Klugh, Kevin Mahogany, Cyrus Chestnut, Harry Allen, James Carter, Warren Vache, Allen Vache, Chris Botti and Christian McBride. He has performed in such prominent jazz venues as Andy’s (Chicago), Blues Alley (DC), the Metropolitan Room and Iridium (NYC), Scullers (Boston), Shanghai Jazz (NJ) and Herb Alpert’s club Vibrato in L.A. He will tell you that his coolest gig to date was a feature performer on the 2012 edition of ‘Jazz Fest at Sea ‘ cruise event.
Gallante is in his first year of high school in his hometown of Alexandria, VA.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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