Poster Sessions
Greg Weis
Hutchinson Community College
Jazz Composition in Animation
Greg Weis is a composer, arranger, trumpet player, and music educator from St. Louis, Missouri. He is currently writing his dissertation for his Doctor of Arts in Music–Jazz Studies. As a composer, Greg has won several prestigious awards, including multiple Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, two ASMAC Bill Conti Big Band Arranging and Composing Competition awards, and the 2019 Grand Prize for the New York Youth Symphony First Music Jazz Commission. Greg is the Jazz Program Coordinator and Instructor of Music at Hutchinson Community College.
Darrell Katz
Jazz Composers Alliance (JCA) and Berklee College of Music
December 30, 1994
Darrell Katz is director of the Jazz Composers Alliance (JCA), a collective founded in 1985, and leader of OddSong, a sax quartet with violin, marimba and voice. He’s released 14 critically acclaimed CDs with the JCA Orchestra, JCA Sax Quartet and OddSong. His music is eclectic, with wide-ranging stylistic influences and concepts. He has long been fascinated by expanded forms, collective improvisation the combination of words and music: his focus has much been on setting text, both spoken and sung. He has degrees from NEC and Berklee, where he has been on the faculty since 1989.
Mike Conrad
Fertile Soil Suite: Iowa-Inspired Original Jazz
Mike Conrad is a composer, improviser, and teacher from Iowa. His works have earned him four ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards and seven DownBeat Awards, in addition to many other accolades and commissions. Conrad’s music has been performed all around the world, including a 2017 concert by the Metropole Orkest and an ambitious reimagination of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony with Berlin's Stegreif Orchester. Through projects like COLOSSUS, the All Angles Orchestra, and the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra, Conrad continues to produce fresh and exciting pieces for a variety of ensembles.
Stephen Harvey
Salisbury University / Maryland
"Smash!" - Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra
Stephen Philip Harvey (1992) is an African American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator. As a musician and bandleader, he has performed extensively in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. He showcases his performing and compositional efforts with his electric quintet, Sphinx, octet, SPH8, and large ensemble, the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra. His upcoming album, Smash!, will be released on Next Level (Outside In Music) on June 17, 2022. Harvey balances these creative efforts while educating at Wicomico High School, Salisbury University, and Youngstown State University.
David Binkley
United States, Tennessee
You and Me, an original composition
Jazz pianist, composer, and arranger David Binkley is a Knoxville, Tennessee native. Pianist and composer Donald Brown has said, “The first time I heard David play, I was blown away by the advanced harmonies in his playing. David writes amazing originals – compositions that are musical, innovative, and deeply respectful of the jazz tradition.” David has studied with Donald Brown, Jim McNeely, and Richie Beirach. He has presented original compositions at the second (2008), third (2017), fourth (2019), and virtual 2021 International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) Conferences.
Adolfo Mendonça
Lyle Mays' composition techniques in 'Slink'
Adolfo Mendonça is a Brazilian jazz pianist. He has performed in clubs and festivals in three continents. He has recently performed in Florida and Brazil (Blue Note Sao Paulo) and received an award in a Brazilan piano competition. He taught for many years as a full-time instructor at Guarulhos Conservatory in Brazil and taught guest lectures in US colleges and top-10 Latin American colleges and conservatories. He holds a MM in Jazz Studies (Univ. South Florida) and is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Education and teaching classes at the Univ. of Iowa. He is also working on his first album.
Tonatiuh Bazquez Vilchis
Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
Huapango
Tonatiuh Vazquez is a Mexican composer, arranger and band leader. He completed his Master's Degree in Jazz Arranging at WPUNJ under the mentoring of Pete McGuinness and Jim McNeely where he was the recipient of the 2014-2015 Music Scholar Graduate Award. He is the co-author of Suite la Mexicana commissioned by the National Jazz Orchestra of Mexico. He has released three albums: The Saxophone Quintet, Jazz Orchestra and Nin Yolkokol; and two books: Escala Pentatonica and Manual de Armonia Moderna. Since 2016 he is a full time professor at the Jazz Program in the Universidad Veracruzana.
Roella Morayo Marie Oloro
TBA
L'espirit de Joie
Biography
Allie O'Neill
Vancouver, B.C.
Patricia
Allie O’Neill is a Vancouver based composer and pianist. She is inspired musically by her Ukrainian roots and country music as well as composers such as Charles Mingus and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Allie has studied Ukrainian traditional singing, cornet, piano and has made several trips to Indonesia to perform with gamelan ensembles. She completed her Music Composition Diploma at Vancouver Community College primarily studying with Alan Matheson, John Korsrud and Sharon Minemoto and is in the process of completing her undergraduate degree at Capilano University with Brad Turner.
Lauren Elizabeth Baba
Los Angeles, California
"Marigold"
Lauren Elizabeth Baba is a Los Angeles based violinist/violist + composer/arranger/improviser, as well as composer/conductor/director of her 17-piece experimental big band, theBABAorchestra. She has gained critical acclaim and recognition from the creative music scene as one of the top up-and-coming female big band composers and bandleaders, and as “an artist to watch for establishing adventurous new territory.” [DownBeat]. Highlights include reviews/features in DownBeat/JAZZIZ/LA Weekly/All About Jazz, LA Jazz Society New Note Commission, ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, and two self-released albums for theBABAorchestra.
Joseph Herbst
New York, NY
Sehnsucht nach Italien
Composer, arranger, copyist, and saxophonist Joseph Herbst uses music as a medium for storytelling, often as part of collaborative projects, in order to push ourselves to see the world in different ways while strengthening our sense of community. In 2021, Joseph released his debut album, This is Our Environment, an evolving project that brings together original music, spoken word, and environmental justice in order to challenge our understanding of the environment to push us towards a more just and equitable society founded on a sense of community. Joseph leads his own big band and 13-piece.
Matt Erion
Illinois
From Inspiration to Transformation: the Falling Upward Album
Matt Erion is a composer and bassist from Illinois. Matt is currently concluding studies at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, IN that will culminate in him receiving his board certification as a music therapist. Matt is interested in how music can lead his future clients into making transformative change in their lives. He has performed with Grammy Winners and NEA Jazz Masters. He is currently the leader of a twelve piece large jazz ensemble. and has received commissions to write original compositions for the Fox Valley Jazz Big Band (Aurora, IL).
Tom Johnson
Indiana State University
Big Band Charts by Tom Johnson
Dr. Tom Johnson is Professor of Psychology at Indiana State University, where in 2005 he was awarded the Theodore Dreiser Research and Creative Activities Award. Tom studied trumpet with Bill Adam and jazz arranging and composition with Dominic Spera and Brent Wallarab of Indiana University. Tom has recorded his jazz charts with Indiana University jazz students and alumni, and plans a studio CD later this year. Tom performs professionally on piano and plays trumpet in community ensembles. In fall of 2022 he will go “back to school” in the Masters in Composition program at Butler University.
Bryan Kennard
Youngstown State University
Walk With Me
Composer and flutist Bryan Kennard has written works for big band, classical and jazz chamber ensembles, and full orchestra. Bryan currently teaches jazz, composition, and arranging courses at Youngstown State University and performs throughout Northeast Ohio. He received a DMA in Jazz Composition from the Frost School of Music and holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (MM), Youngstown State University (MM), and Mercyhurst University (BM). He has studied jazz composition and arranging with Gary Lindsay, Stephen Guerra, John Daversa, John Mills, and Dave Morgan. bryankennard.com
Sam Blakeslee
New York City
Escaping Shadows
Sam Blakeslee is a New York City based composer and trombonist. As a composer, he was a recipient of the 2018 David Baker Prize in Composition from Ravinia Steans Music Institute and was also a 2020 COVID-19 Commission Grant recipient from International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers. As a trombonist, Blakeslee is also active in the contemporary big band scene in New York where he performs regularly with top-tier ensembles like the Terraza Big Band, Manuel Valera’s New Cuban Express Big Band, Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows, Dan Pugach Nonet, and Big Heart Machine.
Jennifer Allen
Trinity College
The Clearing
Jen Allen is a pianist, composer, author, and educator. As an active recording artist, Jen is featured on many albums including her latest release- Sifting Grace. Jen composes music for big bands, string quartet and other smaller ensembles and was a member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. She has an award winning book called Sitting In: Jazz Piano through Alfred's Publishing. She also offers a course called “Creative Alignment” that encourages individuals to pursue their highest self through creativity and other healing modalities such as breathwork, meditation and Reiki.
John Paulson
"Refuge" (for jazz ensemble)
John Paulson started his musical journey in Rochester, MN and got his B.M and M.M from the University of Utah and his DMA in music education from the University of Washington. He’s played sax for over 60 years and studied flute and clarinet with symphony players. After 35 years of full time teaching, Dr. Paulson retired from Saint Mary’s University of MN and taught jazz studies at Winona State University for five years. He’s a member of ISJAC, ASCAP and JEN. Visit his website at www.paulsonjazz.com for more.
S'yo Fang
Conservatorium van Amsterdam
The Musicalization of Contemporary Poetry
S’yo (NL/Taiwan) is a pianist, composer and arranger who is eager to present accessible medium that immerses the audience into a complex range of human emotions. His music has the seamless openness created by the context of modern classical and contemporary jazz that brings the balance between improvisation and composition while transforming two musical languages. It does not eliminate the viewer, but invites Modernism in a tangible way.
Alex Clements
University of Southern California
Keith Jarrett as a Composer: Music of the American and European Quartets
Vibrant, rhythmic, captivating, and lyrical are just a few of the many adjectives that can be used to describe the many facets of this talented and creative Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Clements holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California. Clements skills and versatility as a composer are recognized by a series of commissions for Canada’s nationally known Montreal Jazz Big Band, including a 60-minute suite entitled “Jazz Images” portraying moments in jazz history.