Don Mopsick began his musical career as a teenager in his hometown of Linden, NJ, performing on trumpet and bass guitar for local ethnic dances. He attended Rutgers University and The Manhattan School of Music. His first professional gigs were with Rosemary Clooney and Ralph Sharon around Boston.
Mopsick’s interests in jazz have always been eclectic. While in New York, he performed on tuba and bass with The Smith Street Society, Lee Castle (with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra), Jim Chapin, John Carisi, Benny Ventura, the Paul Jefferey Octet and others.
After a move to Ft. Myers FL in 1977, Mopsick began private study on double bass with Lucas Drew at the University of Miami. He moved to Orlando in 1983 and began work at Walt Disney World, Circus World, Rosie O’Grady’s, and as a free-lance bassist state-wide. Until 1986 he was a full-time staff musician at Walt Disney World. During his time in Orlando, Don played concert dates for, among others, The Jazz Club of Sarasota, The Treasure Coast Jazz Society (Vero Beach), the Gainesville Friends of Jazz, the Central Florida Jazz Society, and was a jazz clinician at Valdosta (Georgia) State University.
Mopsick played Florida concert dates with Howard Alden, Mousey Alexander, Bill and John Allred, Dan Barrett, John Bunch, Pete Christleib, Al Cohn, Richie Cole, Ike and Freddie Cole, Kenny Davern, Buddy DeFranco, Terry Gibbs, Scott Hamilton, Buddy Morrow (with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra), Ken Peplowski, Flip Phillips, Red Rodney, Bob Rosengarden, Ira Sullivan, Clark Terry, Warren Vaché Jr., Joe Wilder and many others.
In 1991 Don joined the 7-piece Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio TX. He played six nights a week at The Landing jazz club and toured with the band throughout the US and abroad, including a 15-day tour of Russia and Siberia in 2007.
The style of Cullum’s band focused on pre-WWII classics as played by King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Bob Crosby Bob Cats, early Duke Ellington, Eddie Condon, etc. In keeping with this aesthetic, at The Landing Mopsick played acoustically (“unplugged”), without the use of a pickup or amplifier for the bass. During his years in San Antonio Don recorded hundreds of hours for the Riverwalk Jazz public radio series. Some of the guests appearing on the show were Benny Carter, Clark Terry, Bob Wilber, Dick Hyman, Ken Peplowski, Kenny Davern, Milt Hinton, Nicholas Payton, Ralph Sutton, “Sweets” Edison, Shelly Berg, Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Joe Williams, Stephanie Nakasian, Linda Hopkins, Bob Barnard, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Vince Giordano, Banu Gibson, Savion Glover, Bob Haggart, Jon-Erik Kellso, and many others. Don also worked as an Associate Producer for the radio show developing show ideas, writing scripts and creating their first website in 1995. The show’s run on public radio ended in 2015 but is currently being streamed in its entirety by the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound.