Giovanni Santos, music educator and freelance trumpet performer in Southern California, is director of bands at Loma Linda Academy, a position he has held since 2008. Most recently, Santos has taught music and freelanced as a trumpet performer in Southern California, playing as a soloist and member in orchestras and chamber and jazz ensembles.

Santos has performed nationwide as a soloist and chamber musician and was featured as solo trumpet in a recent movie score composed by Ludek Drizhal for the Sci-Fi Channel. He has performed as principal trumpet under the direction of noted composers and conductors, including Yasuo Shinozaki, Carl St. Clair, Alfred Reed, Frank Ticheli, and H. Robert Reynolds.

A 2003 B.Mus. performance graduate in trumpet at La Sierra University, he began his musical training at an early age in his native Puerto Rico. After his family moved to California when he was ten, he began study on the trumpet and while attending San Diego Academy, performed in the school's band and choirs. He received both the John Philip Sousa and the National Choral awards at SDA.

While in academy, Santos began trumpet studies with Richard Hofmann at La Sierra University and continued under his tutelage when he attended LSU as a music major. He played principal trumpet in the university symphony orchestra and principal cornet in the Wind Ensemble. He also assisted Barbara Favorito, director of the ensemble, in rehearsals.

Santos was a winner and soloist in the annual LSU Concerto Concert and, following graduation, he continued study on the trumpet at the University of North Texas College of Music with professor John Holt. He completed an M.Mus. in music education at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, where he was a scholarship trumpet performance student of Boyde Hood of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Santos was the founding member of the Coastal Brass Quintet and was instrumental director at Maywood Academy High School, where he directed instrumental ensembles and taught world music and theory classes. MAHS, founded in 2006, is an alternative high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District that offers specialized training in four areas, including the visual and performing arts. He and his wife, Tanya, presently reside in Riverside, California, where she is an elementary school teacher.

ds/2008