What do Family Guy, The Soloist and the L.A. Philharmonic have in common with Rob Schaer, ’02? He has played trumpet in all three — and more. Thinking he would follow in his father’s footsteps, Rob wanted to be a high school band director. But instead of earning a music education degree, he decided to pursue a performance degree. And the rest is musical history.   Rob regularly works as a freelance trumpet player in Los Angeles, where he has performed on American Dad, at the Playboy Jazz Festival and at a tribute for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.   “In this business, it’s all word of mouth,” says Rob, who first got to know some of his L.A. contacts through his UCF trumpet professor John Almeida. “These same guys work on the best sessions in town, and they started recommending me to play in their trumpet sections.”

In fact, that’s how he got a gig on Dancing with the Stars.

As a child wanting to be an astronaut when he grew up, Rob knew his future would include stars — just not ones like John Williams, Tony Bennett, Frankie Valli, Quincy Jones and Michael Bublé. But even though he’s living quite the life in Tinseltown, he’s never forgotten his roots.

“Being in school and studying with wonderful professors like John Almeida, Jeff Rupert and Ron Ellis completely changed my life and my approach to music,” Rob explains. “Without their help and guidance, I wouldn’t be where I am today. For that reason, the music performance degree I earned at UCF means the world to me.”

A Few More Notes

What is your theme song?

It was a Very Good Year by Frank Sinatra — that, or Knight Rider

If you had one do over in life, what would it be?

I probably wouldn’t have mooned my mom while she chased me outside the house in eighth grade.

Most embarrass ing song on your mp3 player?

Well, I don’t have a lot of pop music, believe it or not. So, my sister would tell you it’s all “nerdy” classical and jazz music. I have 50 gigabytes of only these two kinds of music.

Besides the obvious, do you have any ot her musical interests?

I play a little piano, but not in public! I write a lot of music, not only for high school bands, but I orchestrate for film/TV and have been known to write a jazz band chart or two.

What is your ultimate goal for your career?

To get better at making music every day until I put the horn away forever.