Charlie Bertini

Eager to play trumpet professionally, Charlie Bertini started his own dance band in the ninth grade. At age 19 he joined the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus and toured for six years as first trumpeter and later as musical director. The circus relocated him to Florida where he began to playing stage shows with nightclub performers like Mel Tormé and Patti Page, and freelance engagements at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. Bertini has backed up artists such as Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, Henry Mancini, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Frank lin and Ray Charles. He has played on network TV specials for Walt Disney World, Ringling Bros Circus, and several PBS music specials. As a recording artist, Charlie has seven solo albums, and he has recorded 13 albums with Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band. In addition, he has produced close to 100 albums for other artists, including Warren Vaché, Wycliffe Gordon, Harry Allen, Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli and The Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has performed in 45 of our 50 states, Europe and China. Bertini also served as executive director of the annual AppleJazz Festival in upstate NY, which ran from 1984 until 2014. As a teacher and clinician he has led workshops and lectures at universities and high schools, is an adjunct trumpet teacher at Osceola County School for the Arts, and teaches privately, while remaining one of the most versatile and respected trumpeters and producers in the industry. More at charliebertini.com.