Mike Ponella, trumpeter, received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music. For over twenty five years he has been the lead trumpeter with the
Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, as well as previous lead trumpet/ soloist work for the United Nation Orchestra with
Paquito D'Rivera, and also with
Slide Hampton + The Jazz Masters.
Ponella plays first trumpet with
Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, which won a Grammy Award for HBO's soundtrack Recording of
Boardwalk Empire (2010). As a free-lance musician, he has played for recordings, radio, television, musical theatre and film, constituting a wide variety of musical styles ranging from performances with
Dizzy Gillespie to Maestro
Anton Coppola.
Ponella is on camera and sound track for
Michael Feinstein's American Songbook (2010), and has appeared on radio broadcasts with
Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." In August 2013 he was a special guest clinician/trumpeter for a Japan tour, performing his original compositions from his "G.W.B. Shuffle" CD.
In HBO's series,
Vinyl (2016), Ponella participated in recording and was trumpet instructor/coach on set.