Jazz Festival Adjudicators

Bill Buchholtz

Bill Buchholtz received his B.M.E. from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he continued his graduate study. Bill was selected as the 1980 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year-Middle School. Bill also teaches trumpet privately and is active playing professionally throughout the state. Bill has been with the Shell Lake Arts Center for well over 30 years. He is active as a clinician, and some of his past playing associations have included Bob Hope, Mel Torme, Les and Larry Elgart, Myron Floren, Bobby Vinton, The O’Jays, and many others.

Jeff Crowell

Dr. Jeffery Crowell is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he teaches applied percussion and percussion techniques, conducts the UW-Eau Claire Percussion Ensemble, and leads Jazz III, part of the outstanding UW-Eau Claire award-winning jazz area. Before joining the faculty at UW-Eau Claire, Dr. Crowell taught on the faculties of several colleges, including Purdue University. Dr. Crowell received his DMA in percussion performance with a jazz performance/electro-acoustic media emphasis from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. He is active throughout the Midwest and Western United States as a performer, clinician, adjudicator, and educator.

Dr. Crowell is on the teaching staffs of several summer camps including the Yamaha Sounds of Summer-Midwest Percussion Camp in Illinois and the Shell Lake Jazz Ensemble, Combo, and Concert Band Camps. A versatile artist in many genres, Dr. Crowell's performance and recording credits include such artists as Bobby Shew, Louie Bellson, David Samuels, Henry Mancini, Joan Rivers, Lou Harrison, Kent Nagano, David Garibaldi, Buddy Baker, Glen Velez, Nebojsa Zivkovic, and John Bergamo. He has performed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series, presented and performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, is in the motion picture "The Majestic" starring Jim Carrey, marched with the Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, and has taught on the staffs of numerous award-winning groups including the Tournament of Roses Marching Honor Band. He is an active member of the Percussive Arts Society having been recently the Wisconsin Chapter President as well as a current member of the Music Technology Committee. Dr. Crowell is an artist/clinician for Pearl/Adams Drums and Percussion, Sabian Cymbals, and Innovative Percussion Sticks and Mallets.

Lennie Foy

Leonard "Lennie" Foy is Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana where his duties include teaching jazz history, jazz combo, jazz improvisation, trumpet pedagogy, brass quintet, and brass techniques. He earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and the Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He began doctoral studies in brass pedagogy at the Indiana University School of Music and has studied trumpet with Charles Gorham, Barbara Butler, Vincent DiMartino, Louis Davidson, and Stanley Friedman. He has jazz studies with David Baker, Ray Wright, Bill Dobbins, and Raymond Ricker.

Lennie maintains an active professional career in jazz and classical performance arts as a trumpeter, teacher and clinician. He has performed and recorded as a member of the Nashville Symphony and Pops Orchestras, Nashville Opera, New Brass Quintet, Stones River Chamber Players, and his current septet the Arts Center Jazz Collective. Additionally he has been featured as guest trumpet soloist with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra, and numerous high school and college ensembles. As a freelance musician he has performed with numerous artists including Joe Williams, Oscar Peterson, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, James Moody, and Roland Hanna. Currently he records and tours as a member of internationally acclaimed ensembles including the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (since 1991) and the Brass Band of Battle Creek.

Lennie has performed in major concert venues including the Kennedy Center, Pori International Brass Festival and the Spoleto Music Festival. During the summer months he tours extensively and serves on the faculty at the Shell Lake Arts and Education Center 's Music Festivals. He also annually presents clinics, master classes, and adjudicates at high schools and colleges throughout the country and has appeared at music festivals in Indiana Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin .

Peter Hussey

Peter Alan Hussey is a music educator and performer in the St. Louis area and is currently on the music faculty at McKendree College and Lewis & Clark College . Formerly on faculty at Eastern Illinois University , where he received his BM and MA in Percussion Performance. He is also on staff with the Alton , Illinois school system as percussion specialist and serves as an adjudicator, clinician and arranger of marching, concert, jazz and world percussion throughout the country. Peter is also the co-host and founder of the Midwest Percussion Camp.

Performance credits include Grammy Award Winner Maria Schneider, the Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis, The Illinois Symphony, The Danville Symphony, St. Louis Philharmonic, Zebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, St. Louis Brass Band, the Alton Symphony, The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, and Aretha Franklin. Peter is an endorser for the Zildjian Company and Innovative Percussion.

Greg Keel

Greg Keel is on the faculty at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis and Macalester College in St. Paul. He has been a visiting conductor in the UW-Eau Claire Jazz Studies Department, and developed the jazz improvisation course for the summer UWEC High Potential Institute. Greg is an artist/clinician for Selmer Saxophones, and is a member of the jazz saxophone quartet "JAZZAX." Greg attended the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, Madison, and Concordia College in St. Paul. He studied saxophone with Harry Miedema, Brian Grivna, Ruben Haugen, Richard Fletcher and Bill Grahn. Greg has performed with Anthony Cox, Mel Torme, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, The Temptations, Bobby Vinton, Andy Williams, The O’Jays, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Bob Hope, and blues guitarist Luther Allison. He is vice-President of the Minnesota chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), and is saxophone coach for the 2005 Minnesota All-State Honors Jazz Ensemble. Greg’s appearance is made possible in part by Conn-Selmer.

Ron Keezer is an Associate Professor of Music (Emeritus) from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He taught percussion, and directed the Percussion Ensemble, Marimba Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble II at UWEC. Mr. Keezer is a composer with publications through Hal Leonard Publishing, Kendor Publishing and Really Good Music, LLC. as well as a Drum Set Video through the University of Wisconsin Press. He is a conductor, adjudicator, clinician for Ludwig Drum Co. and Sabian Cymbals, Ltd. and an author of a wide variety of articles for various music periodicals. Mr. Keezer was, for seven years, a member of the Board of the Wisconsin Music Educators conference and Secretary/Treasurer of the Wisconsin Unit of the International Association of the Jazz Educators. Mr. Keezer is the Past-President of the Wisconsin Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, a former member of the executive council of the WMEC and and the former Vice President for NW Wisconsin and WMEC.

Mr. Keezer has been the Honors Band conductor and Jazz Band conductor for a wide variety of conferences in the State of Wisconsin as well as many of the States in the continental U.S. He has been a faculty member of the Indianhead Arts Center in Shell Lake and a clinician/artist for the Ludwig Drum Company since 1972. Mr. Keezer took a sabbatical in Japan to study Japanese drumming (Taiko) in 1996.

Rich MacDonald

Professor, Dr. R. Richard MacDonald, joined the music faculty at Winona State University in the fall of 1996. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Education degrees from the University of North Texas, and the Doctor of Arts degree in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado. Dr. MacDonald has taught extensively in Texas, serving on the faculties of the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington and Eastfield College. Some of his performance credits include: Milt Hinton, Slide Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, George Benson, Eddie Daniels, and three years touring experience with Ice Capades.

Dr. MacDonald performs regularly as a drummer and vibraphonist at jazz venues in the Southeastern Minnesota, Western Wisconsin region. He is also principal percussionist with the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Symphony Orchestra.

As a drumset and percussion specialist, Dr. MacDonald has presented clinics throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is an endorsee of Sabian cymbals and Vic Firth sticks and mallets, serving on their respective education teams. He has also been a contributing author to Percussive Notes - the official magazine of the Percussive Arts Society, and currently serves on the executive committee of the Minnesota Chapter of PAS.

Christopher Olson

Christopher Olson has been a faculty member of the arts center since 2004, teaching during the Jazz Ensemble Camp and Jazz Combo Camp, as well as the Guitar Camp at Shell Lake. During the school year, he teaches at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, MN.  Chris earned a masters degree in jazz studies/performance from the University of North Texas in 1995. He holds bachelors degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in jazz studies and music education. He has been the guitar professor at UW-Stevens Point, the Wausau Conservatory of Music, and Inver Hills Community College, where he also taught music history and directed a jazz ensemble. In addition, he taught courses in jazz history and improvisation, while directing a jazz band at UW-Marathon County.

Chris has performed with such artists as Bob Mintzer, Louis Bellson, Terry Gibbs, Ira Sullivan, and Bobby Vinton. He has performed with dozens of artists locally, and has been featured as a solo performer or guest artist at events such as the UWSP Jazz Festival and the Minnesota Jazz Guitarathon. Chris is featured on the CD In the Meantime by the quartet, Maintime, released in 2006. Chris has had several articles published in Guitarist, the newsletter of the Minnesota Guitar Society, and has published a collection of original pieces, Contemporary Etudes for Acoustic Guitar (Really Good Music, LLC).  Chris is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators and The Twin Cities Jazz and Guitar Societies. He is serving as guitar reference on the resource team for the Minnesota chapter of IAJE.

Phil Ostrander

Dr. Phil Ostrander is Assistant Professor of Trombone at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he conducts the Symphony Band and teaches private trombone, trombone ensemble and brass techniques. Prior to his work at Eau Claire, he held a faculty position in New York at SUNY Geneseo teaching trombone and jazz studies. Dr. Ostrander completed his doctoral studies in trombone performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Dr. John Marcellus. Dr. Ostrander received master's degrees in both trombone and wind conducting from the New England Conservatory, as well as a bachelor's and Performer's Certificate from Eastman.

Dave Pavolka

David Schmalenberger

David Schmalenberger is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota, Duluth where he directs performing ensembles and teaches courses in percussion, jazz, and World Music.  He received his DMA in percussion and World Music from West Virginia University. Currently, Schmalenberger performs with the Bigtime Jazz Orchestra, the jazz percussion duo SCHAG, and Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. He has also toured with the Summit Brass Ensemble and the Intergalatic Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

Dr. Schmalenberger received a Bachelor of Music degree from Capital University in Jazz Studies and a Master of Music degree in percussion performance from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has studied the traditional music of Africa extensively and has traveled to Ghana (twice) as well as Kenya and Tanzania. His articles Ed Blackwell's African Influences and African Rhythm: Perceptions of a Westerner were published in the Percussive Notes Journal (1996 and 1997, respectively). David also published his composition I Remember , a drumset solo based on traditional West African dance rhythms.

Nick Schneider

Jamey Simmons

Jamey Simmons, a West Bend, Wisconsin native, earned his bachelor of music and teaching certification at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire under the guidance of Robert Baca.  In May of 2002 he earned his Master of Music in Jazz and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music where he studied under jazz composer and arranger Fred Sturm.  Mr. Simmons is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. 
  

Doug Snapp

Dean Sorenson

Dean Sorenson (b. 1963) is the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota as well as a prolific and highly sought-after composer, arranger, trombonist, educator, and clinician. He received his bachelor’s degree in trombone performance from the University of Minnesota and his master’s degree in jazz arranging and composition from the Eastman School of Music.

Mr. Sorenson is the co-author of the highly successful STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE JAZZ ENSEMBLE METHOD, an innovative and comprehensive method book for young jazz ensembles. The highly anticipated follow-up book, THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE ADVANCED JAZZ ENSEMBLE METHOD, was released to rave reviews and continues the solid, practical techniques introduced in the first book.

Mr. Sorenson is also the author of STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE JAZZ COMBO SESSION, and composer of numerous pieces for concert band and jazz ensemble published by the Neil A. Kjos Music Company. As an advocate of jazz education and the expansion of the repertoire, he continues to develop creative materials and methods to help students and teachers better understand the art form.  An outstanding clinician, conductor, and soloist, he is frequently featured at festivals and conventions around the country and abroad. He also maintains a full schedule of concert and recording dates as a Yamaha performing artist.

Mr. Sorenson has composed and arranged for numerous ensembles including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Airmen of Note, the United States Air Force Band, and for brass ensembles Proteus 7 and the Chestnut Brass Company. He is active as a commissioned composer and arranger for jazz ensemble, concert band, and chamber ensembles, and has also written several sacred choral pieces. Dean is listed in “Who’s Who of America’s Teachers”, and holds memberships in the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), a member of the International Trombone Association (ITA), the American Federation of Musicians, Local 30-73 (AFM), the Music Educator’s National Conference (MENC), Minnesota Music Educator’s Association (MMEA), the College Music Society (CMS), the American Composer’s Forum (ACF), the Twin Cities Jazz Society (TCJS), and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). For more information please visit www.deansorensonmusic.com.

Michael Walk

Michael Walk is currently an Instrumental Music Instructor for Stillwater (MN) Area Schools. After receiving his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1992, he worked as a musician for various cruise ship companies based in Miami, FL. Michael has been a music educator and performer in the Western Wisconsin/Twin Cities metro area since 1995. He went on to obtain his Masters Degree in Music Education from UW-River Falls in 2002. Michael currently performs with the JazzAx Saxophone quartet and has been on the Shell Lake Arts Center Jazz Faculty since 1991.  For more information or to contact Michael please visit his website at:http://web.mac.com/walksax"

Chris White

Pianist Chris White hails from Toronto, Canada. After obtaining a B.A. in English from the University of Toronto, Chris decided to focus his studies entirely on music. In 1997 he attended Indiana University’s School of Music and pursued his Masters degree in Jazz Studies, graduating with a Phi Kappa Lamda award (National Music Honors Society) and elected to the Who's Who of American College Students in 1999. Gaining valuable experience in Indianapolis, he performed with The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, David Baker, Jamey Aebersold and Oliver Nelson, Jr.

Chris has studied piano with Luke Gillespie, Lynne Arriale, Barry Harris and Andy LaVerne. In August 2000 Chris was invited to perform in the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia hosted by James Moody, Rufus Reid and David Baker. Currently he is an instructor of jazz piano, jazz history and jazz theory at Loyola University and jazz piano instructor at Lake Forest College in Chicago. Chris is also an active journalist, writing for the allaboutjazz.com and chicagojazz.com websites. He continues to be a busy freelance musician in the Chicago area, performing at countless venues in the area such as The House of Blues, Navy Pier, Nordstroms, The Peninsula Hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, and many more.

Steve Zenz

Steve Zenz, percussionist, has been performing music professionally for over 40 years. A native of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, he obtained a Bachelor of Music Education degree from UW-Eau Claire in 1975 and a Master of Music Education degree from UW-Stevens Point in 1987. Mr. Zenz's career in education has spanned more than three decades and has included appointments at UW-LaCrosse and UW-Stevens Point and is currently employed by the School District of Slinger.

Steve has performed with the Wisconsin Chapter of Young Audiences Inc., taught at Point Music Camp at UW-Stevens Point, Birch Creek Music Center in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, the Summer Youth Program at Michigan and the UW-Green Bay Summer Jazz Camp. He has performed with such diverse personalities as Milt Hilton, Clark Terry, Myron Floren, Tiny Tim and Rose Mary Clooney. Steve has had numerous appointments to "Who's Who among American Teachers,” was named WJZI-Milwaukee's Music Teacher of the Month in 2005 and was elected to the American Association of School Band Directors in 2006. He is the co-founder of the Cordoba Jazz Camp in Cordoba, Argentina, Vice President of the Wisconsin Unit of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) and a member of the IAJE International Executive Board, representing South America.