From Junior High Band Room to The Smith Center Stage: The Kaylee Medley Story

JOI Spotlight Series — Kaylee Medley, Trumpet · Las Vegas Youth Jazz Orchestra

Every great musician has a moment when everything clicks. For Kaylee Medley, it started with a band director who saw something in a junior high school student that she was only beginning to see in herself.

That moment set off a chain of events that would take her from a classroom in Las Vegas to the stage of the 79th Midwest Clinic in Chicago and to a trumpet solo alongside Grammy-nominated legend Wayne Bergeron at a sold-out show at Myron's at The Smith Center.

She is about to begin her senior year of high school. This is her story. And it's exactly the story JOI was built to make possible.

The Beginning: A Band Director, A Teacher, A Door Opens

Kaylee's journey into jazz began at Walter Johnson Junior High School, where band director Darren Motamedy first introduced her to the world of music performance. It was Motamedy who recognized her potential and connected her with Rich Matta, who became her teacher throughout 8th grade and helped her develop the fundamentals that would carry her forward.

As Kaylee prepared for high school auditions — a pivotal and nerve-testing moment for any young musician — she connected with Gary Cordell, JOI Co-Founder and one of Las Vegas's most respected jazz educators and musicians. That introduction changed everything.

A Mentor Who Believed. Gary Cordell and the JOI Connection

Gary Cordell has been Kaylee's private instructor and mentor from the end of her 8th grade year to this day. Under his guidance, her growth as a musician has been extraordinary and not just in technical ability, but in confidence, artistry, and a deepening understanding of what jazz is and what it demands of the people who play it.

Jazz requires tolerance and patience, work ethic, listening skills, negotiation, and collaboration. Those are not just musical qualities. They are life qualities. And watching Kaylee's trajectory over the past few years, you see every one of them at work.

Gary Cordell, Kenny Rampton, Donny Thompson, and the dedicated JOI board have built an organization that finds young musicians at exactly the right moment and surrounds them with the right people. Kaylee is a living example of what happens when that system works.

Kaylee's Resume Speaks for Itself

In the years since connecting with JOI, Kaylee Medley has built an artistic record that would be impressive for a musician twice her age.

She earned a place at the Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts (one of the most competitive performing arts schools in Nevada) where she is a member of the top jazz ensemble. LVA does not hand out spots. You earn them.

She traveled to Chicago, Illinois to perform with the LVA top jazz ensemble at the 79th Midwest Clinic — one of the most prestigious music education conferences in the country, attended by thousands of music educators and student musicians from across the world. To perform there as a high school student is an incredible achievement and accomplishment.

She is a core member of the Las Vegas Youth Jazz Orchestra, where she serves as lead trumpet player and a featured trumpet soloist — the first chair in a section of serious young musicians, responsible for the sound, the tone, and the energy of the entire brass ensemble.

She is also a member of the LVYJO Jazz Messengers Combo, where she plays both trumpet and flugelhorn and serves as an arranger — developing original musical ideas and translating them into charts for the ensemble to perform. Arranging is a sophisticated skill that most musicians spend years developing. Kaylee is doing it now.

She has performed with the Sisters in Swing jazz combo at Maxan Jazz Club, adding yet another professional performance credit to a list that keeps growing

It was not a student moment. It was a musician moment.

On June 17th, 2026, Kaylee Medley walked out onto the Myron's stage at The Smith Center.

The room was sold out. The Jazz Vegas Orchestra, 19 of the most accomplished jazz musicians in Southern Nevada was behind her. Beside her was Wayne Bergeron, one of the most celebrated trumpet players in the world, a Grammy-nominated artist whose resume includes performances with virtually every major big band and jazz ensemble in America.

She was featured as a trumpet soloist on Stay Cool Like A Swimming Pool, a fan favorite from local composer Barry Ross that has become one of the JVO's signature numbers. In a room full of professional musicians and a packed audience of jazz enthusiasts, she held her own completely.

Kaylee Medley: A Voice for Women in Jazz

Kaylee carries something else with her on every stage she steps onto. She is a proud advocate for greater awareness and recognition of women in jazz. A genre that has historically been dominated by male musicians and where female instrumentalists, particularly brass players, have often had to fight harder for the same recognition.

That matters. For every young girl in a Las Vegas classroom who picks up a trumpet and wonders whether jazz music is for her, Kaylee Medley is the answer.

What Comes Next

Kaylee will begin her senior year at the Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts this fall. And while she is still very much a student of the music, she is already giving back to JOI in a new way by managing JOI's social media as an intern, and learning the story behind the stage and the marketing behind the mission.

For Kaylee, jazz is not just something she plays. It is something she wants to build, grow, and share with the world.

After graduation, she plans to attend UNLV and pursue a career in music education — returning the gift that Darren Motamedy, Rich Matta, Gary Cordell, and JOI gave to her, and passing it on to the next generation of Las Vegas musicians.

The circle continues. The music plays on.

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About Jazz Outreach Initiative

Jazz Outreach Initiative is a Las Vegas nonprofit connecting the language of music to the language of life through education, outreach, and performances. Founded by Kenny Rampton and built by Kenny Rampton, Gary Cordell, Donny Thompson, and a dedicated board, JOI serves students, families, and communities across Southern Nevada. Platinum- rated by Candid/GuideStar - among the top 0.69% of nonprofits in the country.