Music can take you away.

It took trumpeter/composer/educator Joshua Jern to all seven continents as he worked on cruise ships with an in-house orchestra playing in a variety of acts and shows.

Music can lead you to love.

Jern, who started playing the trumpet in fifth grade, would meet his wife while working for one of the cruise lines.

Music can lead you to a life you couldn’t have imagined.

“Once I finished working with the cruise ships, I moved back to Chicago and began doing all sorts of stuff,” he says. “Music theater, rock music, anything trumpet.”

He’s performed with countless acts and ensembles, including the Buddy Rich Band, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and The Temptations.

Jern’s played trumpet on international rock tours.

He’s played for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Jern has been an integral part of numerous local Chicago and national Broadway tour musical theater productions, performing in the orchestra pit.

He’s formed two orchestras.

The Joshua Jern Swing Orchestra is a 1930s-1940s era swing band that has played at Sturdy Shelter Brewing in Batavia.

The Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra plays modern compositions and arrangements that highlight stunning and inventive ensemble work alongside world-class improvised solo artistry. Featuring some of the finest musicians in the world, the orchestra has released a pair of albums to critical acclaim.

Jern also plays the trumpet and serves as musical director for Front Of House, one of Chicago’s premier dance bands.

“I like a wide variety of stuff and there’s good and bad things to that if you specialize in one thing and are hyper-focused as a musician,” he says. “I have a lot of different interests. I’m a big fan of musical theater. It was easy for me to come to love jazz, and swing music more recently. I learned to swing dance as an extension of the musician’s life.”

When away from the stage, Jern serves as a clinician and adjudicator to help music students. He also maintains a private studio for upcoming trumpeters.

Through it all, Jern still finds time to write arrangements and original music for his own big band and others.

“By the time I turned 21 in my senior year of college I was able to go out and see live music in bars and got hooked,” he says. “That’s when I became an audience member and could see that energy exchanged more clearly, something beyond the academic experience and it’s really magic when it’s done right.”

And he’s been magical ever since.