As a composer of concert, film, and commercial music, Nick DePinna’s musical output is wildly diverse. His creative concert works are performed with increasing regularity across the nation, while at the same time his music for visual media can be heard frequently on such networks as ABC, NBC, FOX, HBO, ESPN, A&E, National Geographic WILD, VH-1, CMT, and Disney+.
A skilled orchestrator, his arrangements, orchestrations, and transcriptions have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Riverside Symphonia, the Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, MUSE/IQUE, the MESTO Orchestra, the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters, the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited, and have been recorded for many albums and film scores.
His 2019 debut EP of progressive big band music, Nexus Music, Vol. 1 (Orenda Records), was met with critical acclaim for both DePinna as a “splendid writer and arranger with an advanced point of view,” as well the “yeomanlike work of his excellent ensemble.” (Jack Bowers, All About Jazz)
Also a versatile trombonist, Nick has performed, toured, and/or recorded with a large variety of groups, including the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Kenny Burrell’s Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited, the Billy Vaughn Orchestra, the Jon Jangtet, the John Daversa Progressive Big Band, the Mike Barone Big Band, the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Long Beach Opera, and the Pasadena Pops. He has also recorded and performed with the likes of Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bobby Caldwell, Dream Theater, Paloma Faith, Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Loggins, M83, Bobby Rodriguez, Dianne Schuur, Wayne Shorter, Moses Sumney, and The Temptations.
Nick is a co-founder of “L.A. Signal Lab,” a new-music collective focused on the intersection of notated and improvised music, and is a co-founder and director of the culinary concert series, “Sensus.” He earned an M.A. in Music from UCLA where his mentors included James Newton, David Lefkowitz, Ian Krouse, Paul Chihara, and Kenny Burrell.
