Toby Whitaker

Toby Whitaker is a trombonist, composer, and educator, residing in Richmond, Virginia. He has served as Assistant Professor of Music at Virginia Commonwealth University and has taught various music courses at Rutgers University and Christopher Newport University. He is the current instructor of trombone at the University of Richmond. At VCU, Toby directed the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, taught applied jazz trombone lessons, and taught Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Arranging, and Jazz Theory/Aural Skills.

Toby has toured throughout the United States with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, under the direction of Buddy Morrow. He has performed internationally with the salsa ensemble Bio Ritmo, for which he also composes. With the brass quintet Trombone Paradise, Toby has traveled from San Francisco to Mexico City to London as a part of the indie rock group Bon Iver. He has performed at music festivals and venues in New York, Chicago, Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, France, England, Switzerland, Poland, and the Republic of Georgia.

As a composer, Toby has written for and led his own big band and orchestrated the compositions of Bio Ritmo for The Richmond Symphony Orchestra. His arrangements have been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, at the 2014 Mingus Awareness Project in Richmond, VA, on WBGO Jazz Public Radio in Newark, New Jersey, and at The Blue Note in New York City.

Toby received his Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Rutgers University, where he studied with trombone virtuoso Conrad Herwig and his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.