Nate Birkey, composer, musician and trumpeter, hits the SOhO Restaurant & Music Club stage on Sunday, July 20, at 7:30 p.m. Birkey brings elegance and energy to any stage he performs on and surely will do so when he’s back under the Santa Barbara stage lights.
Birkey learned the piano young, coming from a musical family, but didn’t feel a connection to the instrument. It wasn’t until he picked up the cornet and then the trumpet that he enjoyed an instrument. Birkey attended Berklee College of Music, Seattle Pacific University and The University of California Santa Barbara, then remained in Santa Barbara until moving to New York in 2005.
Birkey considers himself a musician of both coasts, “If people were to classify me, they’d probably say I sound more like a West Coast, Chet Baker–type player, but I’ve also been influenced by East Coast players like Miles Davis. So there’s a little bit of both coasts in my playing.”…