Jazz Festival Adjudicators

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.

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.

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.

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.