Dave Sear

Dave was born and raised in Luton through a musical family. He picked up the trombone aged 8 and had lessons throughout his school life. Receiving grade 8 distinction in year 12, Dave then went to study at the prestigious Birmingham Conservatoire on the Bmus Hons Jazz course.

He gained the lead trombone chair of the Jazz Orchestra in his second year of study along with a chair in the Birmingham Jazz Ensemble and multiple small bands. Dave is heavily involved within the Birmingham Jazz scene and gigs regularly across the UK with a variety of jazz small bands, big bands and brass bands.

Dave was delighted to attend the Englesholm Winter Jazz Camp in Denmark in 2015 where he studied with Jazz legends such as Dick Oatts, Jeff Ballard and James Genus. During his time at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Dave was coached by Jazz greats such as Jeff Williams, Mark Turner, John Riley, Elliot Mason, Mark Nightingale and George Colligan and was taught regularly by Jeremy Price, Ashley Horton, Hans Koller and Percy Pursglove.

Dave also made it through to the top 20 in the 2016 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition.

Since graduating in 2016, Dave has been paving the way for jazz trombone in the UK. He is busy playing in many bands throughout a multitude of genres, including jazz small bands, jazz big bands, Nola brass bands, pop bands and ska bands.

In recent years, Dave has been lucky enough to perform at many prestigious events and venues, such as Ronnie Scott's, The Vortex, Glastonbury Festival, Bestival, Cork Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall and many others. In 2022 Dave released his debut album 'I Always Thought My Thoughts Were Me' on the Ubuntu record label, which received rave reviews including BBC Music rating the album 5star. Dave also joined the faculty at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire the same year, teaching Jazz Trombone.