Casey Brefka - originally from Hudson, OH; now residing in Nashville TN - is a contemporary jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger, and teacher. He currently plays trumpet for the Chris Weaver Band (a rock/Americana band), Hey, Listen! (a jazz/funk video game cover band), The Willies (a trad-jazz dixieland style band), and is the musical director and front man for the Music City Big Band, an 18-piece big band in Nashville playing contemporary jazz music and featuring Nashville's finest jazz musicians. 

Casey started playing trumpet at the age of seven after seeing a Maynard Ferguson concert. Growing up, he was surrounded by big band jazz, from the likes of Count Basie, Maynard, Buddy Rich, and Benny Goodman, and also listened to horn bands like Chicago, Chase, Earth Wind & Fire, and Blood Sweat & Tears. His love for large ensemble jazz carried all the way through high school, where he played not only in his school's jazz band, but in the Cuyahoga Community College High School All-Stars Band as well. 

After a distinguished high school career, Casey earned a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where he graduated in 2008 with a degree in Jazz Composition. In his senior year, Casey received their Toshiko Akiyoshi award for Jazz Composition. After a few brief stints on the road with the Artie Shaw Orchestra, he earned his Master's degree in Jazz Studies from New England Conservatory of Music in 2012 and spent a year on the faculty of Berklee College of Music, serving as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Writing and Production. He then relocated to Nashville in the fall of 2015. Casey has performed with such jazz greats as McCoy Tyner, Maria Schneider, Phil Wilson, Greg Hopkins, and new voices in jazz such as Omar Thomas, Dynamo, Postmodern Jukebox and others. 

Upon moving to Nashville, Casey finally had the opportunity to realize a goal that he had had since he was in undergrad at Berklee College of Music - starting his own professional big band. And so Music City Big Band was born in spring of 2017. 

​ In addition to his regular work, Casey freelances regularly in the area (trumpet, trombone, arranger) and is an executive board member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 257.