Joakim Toftgaard is a trombonist born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is an active performer, studio musician, arranger, and educator based in Los Angeles. 

​

As a founding member of the group Dallas Horns, Toftgaard spends a lot of his time in the studio, arranging and recording music in a variety of genres. Since 2018 he's been the trombonist and horn arranger for multi-Grammy® award winner A. R. Rahman. For the last several years, Toftgaard has also been working closely with multi-platinum producer Major7, regularly arranging and recording horns for a variety of rap artists. 

Toftgaard has been working as a freelance musician and arranger since 2005, with engagements spanning a multitude of genres. He has performance and arranging credits on jazz, funk, pop, rap, salsa, singer-songwriter, and Bollywood songs. As an in-demand recording artist, he's featured on a variety of songs playing trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, french horn, and tenor saxophone. 

​

Toftgaard's brass orchestration and playing can be heard in a multitude of films by Indian superstar film composer A. R. Rahman, most recently in the 2023 film “Pathu Thala” on french horn, trombone, bass trombone and tuba. He also played trombone on the Grammy®-nominated 2019 album “Sekou Andrews & The String Theory”. 

Toftgaard played on the Patti LaBelle album “Home for the Holidays with Friends”, released in 2017. He was featured as a performer and arranger on a track recorded in 2017 with legendary Indian drummer Ranjit Barot. He was subsequently invited to perform and arrange music for the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, India in December of 2017, along with several performances in Mumbai. His arrangements and solo playing can also be heard on the 2016 Dallas Horns album “Christmas”.

During 2016 and 2017, Toftgaard was the youngest member on the jazz faculty at The University of Texas at Arlington, where he taught jazz trombone lessons, brass pedagogy, and directed the UTA jazz trombone ensemble. 

Toftgaard earned an undergraduate degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and a Master's degree in Jazz Performance from the University of North Texas in Denton. While at North Texas, he enjoyed a two-year residency with the seven-time Grammy®-nominated One O'Clock Lab Band. He is featured as a soloist on albums “Lab 2014”, and Grammy®-nominated “Lab 2015”. Toftgaard also directed two of the school's big bands and taught jazz trombone classes. 

Over the years, Toftgaard has had the opportunity to perform or record with a number of prominent musicians including: A. R. Rahman, Bobby McFerrin, Patti LaBelle, Tarrus Riley, Ruben Studdard, Ranjit Barot, Louiz Banks, Tom Kubis, Arturo Sandoval, Wayne Bergeron, Frank Greene, Denis DiBlasio, Billy Harper, Chuck Findley, Don Chelton, Doc Severinsen, Marvin Stamm, Wycliffe Gordon, Andy Martin, Michael Dease, and Tom 'Bones' Malone.

​

Joakim Toftgaard is a Conn-Selmer endorsing artist and plays King trombones. 

​

Click here for a bio in printable format.