Paul was instantly attracted to the trumpet at the age of six years old and very shortly later announced to his parents that he was going to be a professional trumpet player. His formal lessons began at that age but it was the “apprenticeship program” of playing with older kids that Paul attributes as his best influences. Hanging on to the coat tails of those older more experienced kids and playing catch up was a wonderful training ground. By the time he was in ninth grade Paul was playing in local college bands, and by fifteen years old was playing lead in a university band.

It was around that time that his more advanced peers started passing on sub work and Paul’s first “professional gig” was with a big band at a mental institution at the young age of fifteen. That should have been a warning about the things to expect in the crazy music business.

During college Paul became active in the club scene and became a staple in the recording studios playing hundreds of jingles, record dates, and film scores. He adopted the attitude that if there was a hole in the calendar he would take every gig offered, and it was from that varied experience that he gained versatility of style. From polka bands, salsa bands, rock bands, brass quintets, clown bands, pit orchestras, and the studios, he has a wide spectrum of styles. He has played garden parties for ten to crowds of 64,000 in football stadiums.

Since beginning his professional career over thirty-five years ago, Paul Baron has amassed an extensive list of credentials, and has become one of the busiest and most well respected lead and commercial trumpet players in Canada. A shortened list of credits include stints with Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lou Rawls, James Ingram, Patti Austin, Sheena Easton, Ray Charles, Barry Manilow, Bob Hope, Dionne Warwick, Wayne Newton, Steve Allen, Broadway Divas Patti LuPone and Chita Riviera, and many more. He has toured with The Temptations, Mary Wells, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and has played for virtually all of the Motown groups from The Spinners to The Four Tops to The OJAYS. Recently, Paul performed the Gil Evans/Miles Davis suite of “Porgy and Bess” under the baton of the eminent jazz authority Gunther Schuller. His many recordings include Aerosmith (Grammy Award winning song), Led Zeppelin, INXS, David Lee Roth, Skywalk, Powder Blues, and the Barenaked Ladies, as well as numerous movie and television soundtracks (“Mrs. Doubtfire”, “Stargate SG1”, “MacGyver”, “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective”, “First Daughter”, “Lake Placid”, “Airbud”) and is heard on the tracks for the Calgary Stampede and Grey Cup celebrations as lead trumpet. In addition to these performances, Paul may be heard on hundreds of television and radio commercials, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Coke, Pepsi, Ford, Mazda, Toyota and Century 21, Flinstones Vitamins, and many games for Electronic Arts, EA Sports. Paul’s musical theater highlights locally include playing first trumpet for the touring companies of “Miss Saigon”, “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “West Side Story”, “Annie”, “Chicago”, and “Beauty And The Beast”. Paul premiered the first production of Vancouver’s hit musical revue “Forever Swing”, and has played all of the shows since. Paul has toured extensively in the last ten years with the first national companies of “Forever Swing”, “Evita”, “Swing”, “Cats”, “The Full Monty”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, Broadway legend Chita Rivera’s show, “Chita Rivera, The Dancer’s Life”, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” starring Richard Chamberlain, 2008 Tony Award winning musical “In The Heights”, 2010 Tony winner “Memphis, The Musical”, “Sister Act, A Divine Musical Comedy”. On a recent hiatus from the road, Paul played for the world premiere of “:Secondhand Lions” for Warner Bros based on their movie of the same name, The 5th Avenue Theater’s new musical “A Room With A View”, and Gershwin’s “Porgy And Bess”. In October 2014 Paul opened the first national tour of Disney’s “Newsies” to sell-out crowds everywhere. The show broke the all-time record for highest grossing show in a week in Chicago’s Theatrical History and just played to the ONE MILLIONTH “Fansie” in January 2016!!! In September 2016 Paul filmed the live capture of “Newsies” filmed at the famed Pantages theater in Los Angeles. It showed in select movie theaters in February to sold out audiences and was the largest grossing movie of it’s kind in history.

From Paul’s formal education in trumpet performance at Western Washington University, coupled with his invaluable tenure in road bands and virtually every other musical setting, as well as private instruction from trumpet great’s Lew Soloff and Gary Guthman, Paul brings a wealth of experience to his teaching. From Paul’s study of martial arts (mostly Aikido) and eastern philosophies, he has incorporated this experience and teaches an efficient use of energy to where it’s needed, in a relaxed, fun, and musical approach.

In addition to his busy playing career, Paul Baron conducts clinics and masterclasses for all levels from grade school to college and university. He has conducted clinics at Western Washington University, Cleveland State University, Selkirk College, Eastern Washington University, The University of Toronto, Humber College, The University of Colorado in Boulder, The University of Utah, Pacific Lutheran University, as well as many junior and senior high schools. He has adjudicated at The Envision Jazz Festival, Canada’s largest and longest-running educational jazz event for three years in row, the Nelson Music Festival, and has been teaching private trumpet lessons for over thirty-five years. As well, he has conducted bands at the University of British Columbia summer music camps.

We are excited to announce that Paul’s first trumpet book, “Trumpet Voluntarily” was released in fall of 2016 as a guide to accompany the wealth of materials already available to teach the player how, what, and when to practice those materials to develop more quickly and efficiently. It remained “best selling new release” for the whole time and is now selling on six continents world wide with sales from Uganda to China, and Sweden to Australia!!

Paul is furthering his education with a Masters degree from the University of Memphis. The program is designed with Paul and other professionals with busy playing and teaching careers and will largely be completed remotely. Paul will be the first to do this program and will help to design the program for busy professionals. In conjunction with the degree will be Paul’s second book, this one on playing Broadway shows comes from his extensive experience on the road and as a local in many cities. The aim is to prepare players from all levels to play Broadway shows from high school shows to professional Broadway productions.

Vist Paul’s website: http://www.paulbaron.net