Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Joel Schnaper came to Boston in 2013 to play trumpet and study under 1997 Thelonious Monk Competition winner Darren Barrett. After graduating Berklee College of Music in 2017, Joel spent a year playing around Boston with his first original jazz group, the Schnaper-Walberg Quintet, as well as performing and recording with all kinds of artists in Boston and New York.
Joel has taught and performed on the east and west coast of the US, as well as internationally in Malawi, Canada, and China. He’s studied with some of the finest trumpet players of our time, including Lew Soloff, Arturo Sandoval, Laurie Frink, Sean Jones, Charlie Lewis and Jason Palmer. Joel has toured, recorded and performed with greats such as James Montgomery, Grace Potter, STIG, Jon Butcher, Brian McKnight and Lenny Stallworth, among many others. Joel is now based in Los Angeles, where he works prolifically as a sideman, arranger, and bandleader.