The Wicked Bees

Isaac Homuth is one of those rare musical operators who seems to exist in several places at once—horn in hand, chart on the stand, and somehow still keeping track of the larger mission. Since 2015 he’s been a visible presence in the Fargo–Moorhead music community, drifting from stage to stage like a well-dressed hired gun of the bandstand. When commercial groups or big bands need someone reliable—someone who can read the ink, hit the notes, and survive the madness of a live set—Homuth is often the first call. He’s played with a rotating cast of ensembles and keeps several of his own groups alive and kicking. In The Wicked Bees, his job is simple and dangerous: ripping lead trumpet over the top of the band’s skanking rhythms, launching bright brass lines that slice through the groove like a flash of lightning in a midnight storm.

While navigating the jazz clubs and rehearsal halls, Homuth has also been charging through the academic trenches at North Dakota State University, pursuing a degree in music education at the NDSU Challey School of Music. Somewhere along the way he picked up several leadership roles within the program—an impressive feat considering most music students are still trying to locate their practice rooms and their sanity. He’s taught elementary music and served as band director at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School in the Fargo Public Schools district, guiding young musicians through the noble chaos of squeaking clarinets, stubborn trombone slides, and the occasional glorious moment when the band actually locks in.

Outside the rehearsal room, Homuth is a man of wide-ranging curiosities and appetites. He hunts down authentic food from different cultures with the determination of a culinary anthropologist and fills his spare hours with disc golf, skiing, and the high-speed diplomacy of table tennis. When the horns are packed away, you might find him traveling, watching movies, or swapping stories with friends. But sooner or later the trumpet comes back out, because Isaac Homuth is wired for the bandstand—and when the downbeat hits, he’s there at the front line, blasting lead trumpet into the night.