Karl Soukup

Interim Director of Jazz Studies

Office: M238
619-594-6031
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MM, San Diego State University
BM, San Diego State University

Karl Soukup is the Interim Director of the Jazz Studies department at San Diego State University.  He was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Southern California where he now enjoys a diverse career in music, performing, composing, and teaching.

Mr. Soukup obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Music from San Diego State University. He also studied Jazz & Commercial composition at the Manhattan School of Music and has composed many original works and arrangements for commercial clients such as SeaWorld of California, The San Diego Zoo, the United States Air Force Band, Sycuan Casino, and Microsoft Xbox.  Several of his arrangements and original compositions for Big Band appear on the recordings “Nutville” and “Wgasa Jam” by the Brad Steinwehe Jazz Orchestra and on SDSU’s “Thought Trains.”

Mr. Soukup is a skilled jazz, commercial, and classical trumpeter who performs with a variety of San Diego ensembles and in pit orchestras at the Civic Theatre and The Old Globe Theatre.  Karl has been a bandleader for nearly twenty years and continues to be an entertainment provider for local theme parks such as The San Diego Zoo and Legoland. He is an active member of Westwind Brass with whom he has performed countless concerts, educational outreach programs, and toured California and Mexico.  He is also a dynamic studio musician whose trumpeting can be heard on dozens of local and nationwide commercials, theatrical productions, documentaries, films, and various other music projects.

Karl is also an accomplished brass and jazz music educator.  He has coached and mentored many students at San Diego schools including the Coronado School of the Arts, The Bishops School, Mission Bay Montessori Academy, Helix High School, St Augustine’s, and San Dieguito Academy, among others.  In 2013, Mr. Soukup was the Director of the San Diego Jazz Orchestra’s Summer Jazz Workshop held at San Dieguito Academy.