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Wycliffe Gordon
Artist in Residence
Michigan State University
Jazz Studies Program
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Wycliffe Gordon is known as one of the leading jazz trombonists in the U.S., Gordon has been a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet. His extensive performance roster includes performances with Dizzy Gillespie, Nat Adderly, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Joe Henderson, Tommy Flannigan, Phil Woods, Lionel Hampton, and Branford Marsalis, just to name a few.
Gordon’s work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world include masterclasses, clinics, workshops, children's concerts and lectures, and serves as powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages.
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Gordon is also a noted composer and arranger. His works have been performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet, and have been included in programs at the Gershwin Festival in Switzerland, Carnegie Hall, and as part of the Marsalis on Music series. In 2001-02, he premiered many new compositions with the MSU School of Music’s jazz ensembles, symphony bands, and gospel. 
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Sam Pilafian
Professor of Tuba/Euphonium
Arizona State University
Phoenix, Arizona
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Sam Pilafian is perhaps best known as a founding member of the internationally renowned Empire Brass Quintet. He has also recorded and performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Metropolitan Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, and Pink Floyd. As a solo Jazz artist, Sam has recorded over ten CDs. He is also a member of the large brass ensemble, Summit Brass. He is also a member, arranger, and recording producer of the Brass Band of Battle Creek. Solo
recital and concerto performances have taken him to Canada, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Austria, Germany, and England. |
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In 1967 Sam won the Concert Competition at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, becoming only the second tubist in over fifty years to do so. He subsequently won fellowships to Dartmouth College and the Tanglewood Music Center. While at Tanglewood, he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to perform onstage in the world premiere of Bernstein's "MASS", which opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is currently Professor of Music and Director of the Jazz Band at Arizona State University, having previously served for twenty years on the
faculties of Boston University and their summer Tanglewood Institute. Sam has won the Walter Naumberg Chamber Music Award, the Harvard Music Association Prize, and the University of Miami's Distinguished Alumni Award. A past President of T.U.B.A., an international tuba/euphonium interests organization, Sam now serves as Chairman of its Board of Directors. He has been sponsored by German tuba manufacturer Meinl-Weston for thirty years.
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JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet
DAVID MILNE, soprano & alto saxophones
MICHAEL WALK, alto saxophone
PETE WHITMAN, tenor saxophone
GREG KEEL, baritone saxophone
The JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet is dedicated to the exploration and performance of
jazz and improvised music for saxophone quartet. JAZZAX performs original music
composed by its members, arrangements of jazz classics, and newly composed works
commissioned by the JSQ. JAZZAX is based Minneapolis/St. Paul, where it has
presented concert performances and workshops at public schools, performing arts
institutions and universities in the region.
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