It was about 15 years ago that I first began to hear rave reports about a young Canadian trumpet player who was taking the Dixieland jazz circuit by storm. It wasn’t long before the name Bria Skonberg began to appear in my column, and in 2008, we sat down for a full-fledged interview at the Holiday Inn in Sacramento.
In interviewing over 100-plus musicians over the past 30 years, I always try to find some distinguishing characteristic that sets that individual apart from all the others. What struck me about Bria in that 2008 interview was her seriousness, that here was a young lady who knew what she wanted to do with her life and was about to make it happen.
The Move to NYC
It may sound like the classic tale of “small town girl goes to the big city in search of fame and fortune.” But for Bria, her cross-country move in 2010 from the family home in pastoral Chilliwack, British Columbia (population 83,788) to the teaming metropolis of New York City (20 million souls), by way of Vancouver, B.C., was a well-considered decision and an appropriate career move for this talented young musician.
“I knew I couldn’t continue to travel from Canada all the time if I wanted to make focused progress in my career,” she recalled. “I had enjoyed a certain level of success, but I found myself getting too comfortable. I needed to be challenged, to grow and to find out what I really
