Mike Carubia

Mr. Carubia has been a professional musician since age 15 and has been involved in all aspects of the music business. As a performer, Mike has played on six National telethons, recorded over 50 CD’s of industrial and sports library music, numerous commercials, 7 jazz albums and several pop and contemporary recordings. He has performed in orchestras which accompany the worlds best singers including ; Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Englebert Humperdinck, Sammy Davis Jr, Jerry Vale, Lena Horne, Maxine Sullivan and most recently Frank Sinatra Jr..

Mr. Carubia played five years with the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band completing a five week World Tour and a two week jazz cruise in the 1980’s. His credits as a substitute trumpet player on Broadway number 25 different shows including: Sugar Babies, Les Miz, 42nd Street, Starlight Express, Sweet Charity, The Wiz, Fosse, Saturday Night Fever and most recently Chicago. Mike was a regular substitute on the Village Vanguard Orch. (Formerly the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orch ) for the period 1982-2004.

As a composer and arranger Mr. Carubia has written and recorded over 175 original compositions for Omni Music, a music source for TV, Radio and Industry. He has also published over 100 Jazz Ensemble arrangements or compositions plus 5 books on improvisation for Warner Bros. Music and Alfred Music & Kendor Music. He now has is own publishing company, Smart Chart Music, which features simplified scorings of Thad Jones’ compositions and originals by himself and 6 nationally known composer. His book “Effective Etudes for Jazz” (Kendor Music) is in it’s 3rd printing and Vol. 2 is being prepared for a Fall 2014 release.

Mr. Carubia taught high school in East Meadow for 8 years, spent 3 years as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut before spending 15 years at Ward Melville as Jazz Ensemble Director and Theory Instructor. He retired from public school teaching in July of 05 and since then has held adjunct teaching positions at St. Joseph’s College, Nassau Community College and Five Towns College on Long Island NY. He is active as a free-lance trumpet player and arranger in the NY area.

He received is Bachelor of Arts from C.W. Post College and his Masters degree in Theory and Composition from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, and attended the Eastman Arrangers Workshop in 1970. He studied arranging privately with Manny Albam and Ray Starling.

Mike played professional baseball for the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels following his graduation from high school. He made the major league roster as a pitcher for the Angels in 1963 but an arm injury forced retirement from the sport in 1967.

Mike Carubia passed away on January 22, 2021.