Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American virtuoso trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammy Awards and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the son of jazz musician Ellis Marsalis Jr. (pianist), grandson of Ellis Marsalis Sr., and brother of Branford (saxophonist), Delfeayo (trombonist), and Jason (drummer). Marsalis is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year.
The Houston Symphony is a Grammy Award winning orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston.
John Alfred Mandel is a Grammy and Oscar-winning American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. Among the musicians he has worked with are Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn.
David Hickman is an American trumpeter, author, academic, and is widely considered one of the preeminent trumpet virtuosi of the 20th century. He is a Regents' Professor of trumpet at Arizona State University and past President of the International Trumpet Guild.
Clyde Lanham Hurley, Jr. was a trumpeter during the big band era. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Clyde Lanham Hurley and Esther Brown. Scott Yanow describes Hurley as "a fine trumpeter with a fat tone and a hard-driving style". He died of a coronary occlusion in Fort Worth leaving two sons and a former wife.
Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg is an American pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and producer. He is the Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band is an American musical ensemble led by Paul Shaffer. It is best known for being David Letterman's house band for 33 years. The band formed in 1982 to serve as house band for NBC's Late Night with David Letterman. When Letterman moved to CBS and began hosting the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993, the band added a horn section and second guitarist, renaming itself the CBS Orchestra, a name that lasted until Letterman left the Late Show in 2015. After a two-year hiatus, in 2017, the band was revived by Shaffer using its original name and released an album titled Paul Shaffer & The World's Most Dangerous Band, followed by a tour.
William Joseph Takacs is the principal trumpet of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra and trumpet instructor at West Texas A&M University.
Mercer Kennedy Ellington was an American musician, composer, and arranger.
Nathaniel Bryant Mayfield is an internationally recognized trumpet soloist and prizewinner. Prior to his enrollment at the Juilliard School of Music as a student of Raymond Mase, Mayfield studied trumpet at Interlochen Arts Academy, as well as the Tanglewood Institute. In 1994, he was awarded a Presidential Scholarship, and was the winner of the 1994 National Trumpet Competition, the 1997 International Trumpet Guild Solo Competition, the 1995 Aspen Brass Concerto Competition, the 1997 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, and has advanced in numerous other International Solo Competitions.
The International Trumpet Guild (ITG) is an international organization of trumpet players. Members include professional and amateur performers, teachers, students, manufacturers, publishers, and others interested in belonging to an organization dedicated to the trumpet profession. ITG is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization supported by the dues of individual members.
Jeff Tyzik is an American conductor, arranger, and trumpeter. He has recorded jazz albums as a soloist and arranged pop and jazz music for orchestras.
Leonard Candelaria is an American trumpeter and educator residing in Birmingham, Alabama. Until Fall 2009, he served as Professor of Trumpet and Artist in Residence at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Prior to his appointment at UAB, Leonard was, for 28 years, professor of trumpet at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he was eventually named Regents Professor of Music in the College of Music. He is recognized internationally as a teacher and performer, and has been a featured soloist in numerous concerts all over the world. He has often been praised for his high level of musicianship and artistry.
Ambrose Akinmusire is an American jazz trumpeter.
Robert Charles Suderburg was an American composer, conductor, and pianist.
Once in a Blue Moon is an album by the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra that was released in 2000. It features Gary Foster on saxophone.
Sixth Floor Jazz is a 1997 CD release by the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra; it was critically acclaimed by All About Jazz. The recording also features Gunther Schuller conducting and giving commentary to historic works of Duke Ellington and Charlie Barnet during a live concert in 1995. The CD is unique in featuring Enhanced CD audio and QuickTime video with credits and pictures for the recording sessions.
Paul Edmonds is a jazz musician, composer and teacher. Formerly a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Loose Tubes, he has performed at Ronnie Scott's and appeared on a number of recordings both as a leader and sideman.
Steve Wiest(néJohn Stephen Wiest; born 1957) is an American trombonist, composer, arranger, big band director, music educator at the collegiate level, jazz clinician, author, and illustrator/cartoonist. From 1981 to 1985, he was a featured trombonist and arranger with the Maynard Ferguson Band. Wiest is in his fifth year as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music. He is the Coordinator of the 21st Century Music Initiative at the school. Wiest has been a professor for thirty of the thirty-eight years that he has been a professional trombonist, composer, and arranger. From 2007 to 2014, Wiest was Associate Professor of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas College of Music and, from March 2009 to August 2014, he was director of the One O'Clock Lab Band and coordinator of the Lab Band program. At North Texas, Wiest also taught conducting, trombone, and oversaw The U-Tubes — the College of Music's jazz trombone band. Wiest is a three-time Grammy nominee — individually in 2008 for Best instrumental Arrangement and in 2010 for Best Instrumental Composition, and collaboratively in 2010 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, which he directed. As of 2013, Wiest has in excess of 58 arrangements and compositions to his credit, which include 10 original compositions from his current project (see 2013–2014 project, below).
Timothy M. Ries is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate/conservatory level. Ries is in his twelfth year as a professor of jazz studies at the University of Toronto. His universe of work as composer, arranger, and instrumentalist ranges from rock to jazz to classical to experimental to ethno to fusions of respective genres thereof. His notable works with wide popularity include The Rolling Stones Project, a culmination of jazz arrangements of music by the Stones produced on two albums, the first in 2005 and the second in 2008.
