About Us

Gilbert Castellanos is a nationally renowned San Diego-based musician, composer, curator, educator and arranger, and one of the country’s top-call jazz trumpeters. For over a decade, Castellanos has been a member of The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, performing around the world and recording with the acclaimed big band. He is a San Diego Music Awards six-time Best Jazz Artist and Artist of The Year, with jazz-centric partnerships with The San Diego Symphony (Jazz @ The Jacobs/Bayside Summer Nights Jazz), The San Diego Museum of Art (Portraits In Jazz/The Wednesday Jazz Jam & Young Lions Series @ Panama 66), The San Diego Ballet (Resident Composer for Ritmos Latinos). He founded Young Lions Jazz Conservatory in 2016 and continues to explore new opportunities to fulfill his personal mission to “keep jazz alive.”

Joshua White is one of the music scene’s most creative and technically accomplished pianists. Praised by legendary musicians like Herbie Hancock as having “immense talent” and lauded for his “daring and courageous approach to improvisation … on the cutting edge of innovation”, Joshua has distinguished himself as a formidable leader of distinct voice among his peers.

Born and raised in Southern California, Joshua received early training at the piano and developed rapidly through rigorous study of both Western European Classical literature and the Black American Music traditions. Shortly after placing in the top two as a finalist of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition, Joshua began concertizing as a soloist and musical collaborator all over the world — and continues to maintain an active touring schedule throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Rob Thorsen maintains a diverse and busy schedule in Southern California as a performer, educator, clinician, and composer. He found his true voice in the upright bass and performs regularly in San Diego with artists including the Mike Wofford/Holly Hofmann Quartet, Charles McPherson, Steph Johnson, Gilbert Castellanos, Mundell Lowe, and a host of others. He has released six albums as a leader, the most recent “Solos and Duos – Bass is the Space” which features a host of talents including award-winning pianist Joshua White, Gilbert Castellanos, Steph Johnson, Marshall Hawkins, and Fernando Gomez.  In addition to performing with his own quartet, he is the founder of “Jazz an American Art Form” – a successful jazz education program that has been presented to over 8,000 students to date. He is a faculty member at the annual UCSD Jazz Camp and also a private instructor.

Tyler Kreutel is a drummer/percussionist based in the Southern California area. Born and raised in San Diego, California, he took up the drums at the age of 12 in his middle school jazz band and hasn’t looked back since. Tyler graduated from The San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts in 2012 and went on to receive his Bachelors in Music Performance at California State University Long Beach. While in college Tyler began playing professionally in both the San Diego and Los Angeles area and has been doing so ever since. Tyler has had the great fortune of playing with many outstanding musicians including Gilbert Castellanos, Charles McPherson, Henry Franklin, Joshua White, Marshall Hawkins, Steve Cotter and is one of the most in demand drummers in Southern California. He has taught at both The Orange County School of the Arts and Downey High School.

Known internationally since the late 1980s as one of the leading flutists in jazz, Holly Hofmann’s musical career has included associations with legendary artists such as Ray Brown, Frank Wess, Cedar Walton, and Kenny Barron, as well as a string of 13 critically-acclaimed CDs as a leader with band members such as Terell Stafford, Anthony Wilson, John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, and her husband, pianist Mike Wofford. Originally from the Midwest with degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Northern Colorado, Holly settled in San Diego in the late 1980s. Not content with being just a performing artist and director many musical series, Holly has also been very active as a jazz educator, passing along her knowledge to hundreds of students in clinics at colleges and conferences internationally as well as through her role as a founding member of the faculty of the UC San Diego Jazz Camp. She has given particular focus to mentoring and encouraging young women, particularly women instrumentalists, to become involved in jazz. In sum, for all of the above reasons, Holly has more than earned the title of Jazz Hero both in the jazz community here in San Diego and across the country.

Tonga Ross-Ma’u is a multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, bass, saxophone, drums), composer, songwriter, and producer from San Diego, CA. He has been a part of the San Diego music scene since he started playing with his father’s band (Semisi and Fula Bula) when he was 13. He studied jazz at Wheaton College (MA) and continued his pursuit in the art working with Kamau Kenyatta since he moved back. Over the years he’s played with various groups in town covering different styles including Joe Garrison and Night People, The Earful, One Drop, and Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, along with his own projects like Ascent Trio and Chief Nasty. Throughout these last 15 years he’s taught jazz harmony, composition, and electronic production in school programs and private lessons and worked with ensemble classes around San Diego and LA.

Carter Key is a trombonist, pianist, vocalist, educator, composer, and arranger. Originally from Richmond, VA., in 2015 Carter moved to Miami, FL to pursue Jazz Studies at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. While attending UM, Carter played lead trombone in the prestigious Frost Concert Jazz Band and served as a mentor for younger musicians in the jazz program. Since then, he has worked as a top call musician in South Florida for jazz orchestras, and recordings, particularly for groups such as South Florida Jazz Orchestra and Libido Band. Carter was featured on trombone on the Grammy Award Winning big band album “The Omni-American Book Club” by Brian Lynch. Carter has performed alongside musicians such as Gloria Estefan, Ziggy Marley, Damian Marley, Haley Reinhart, Brett Eldridge, John Daversa, Farruko, Stephen Marley, Gilbert Castellanos, and Arturo Sandoval among others. In his free time, Carter enjoys surfing, swimming, hiking, and traveling.