Mr. Jim Estes teaches trumpet and other brass instruments privately and his students have enjoyed great success for over 40 years. In 2010 nine of the sixteen trumpets chosen for the FBA District Middle School Honor Band were his private students, including the top 5 chairs.

As a performer, Mr. Estes appears as Principal Trumpet in several orchestras, including The Academy Orchestra, and The South Florida Philharmonic. In 2013 Mr. Estes was appointed Principal Solo Cornet of the Orchid City Brass Band.

Mr. Estes has a B M Ed. from the University of Southern Mississippi and a M.S. Degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana. Mr. Estes was a Graduate Assistant at the University of Miami and completed all the coursework and qualifying exams for the Ph.D. Degree in Music Education. Mr. Estes is a National Board Certified Teacher.

In addition to his formal education, Mr. Estes was a private trumpet student of Vincent Cichowicz of the Chicago Symphony and later studied with Gilbert Johnson, formerly Principal Trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the course of learning from these two world-famous teachers and teaching a wide variety of students on all the brass instruments, Mr. Estes has developed an approach to teaching which is successful with nearly all students.