Mark Colby has performed with Gerry Mulligan, Jaco Pastorius, Frank Sinatra, Maynard Ferguson, Bob James, Charlie Haden and Mose Allison. He is a first call studio musician, and has played on over 2,000 commercials in the competitive Chicago market. He has been a jazz faculty member at DePaul University since 1983, as well as Elmhurst College. Currently, he is performing as a guest soloist and clinician/ adjudicator at high schools and colleges throughout the United States.

Paula Corley is one of a few clarinetists in the US to be endorsed both by Buffet Crampon Clarinets and by Dansr (importers of Vandoren), for her expertise in clarinet pedagogy. Currently she is on the faculty at Mars Hill College, located just north of Asheville, North Carolina, where she teaches clarinet, music education, and chamber ensembles. Paula serves as Principal Clarinetist with the Asheville Lyric Opera Orchestra and performs with the Mars Hill College Faculty Woodwind Quintet. Paula is a life-long educator having completed 19 years in secondary schools in the north Dallas area. While teaching in the public schools, she developed her beginning clarinet method—So You Want To Play The Clarinet. She has traveled extensively throughout the US making conference presentations in Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Oklahoma and North Carolina. In 2004 Paula was a featured clinician for the prestigious Midwest International Band and Orchestra Conference. She has made two appearances at Oklahoma University’s Clarinet Symposium and has served 6 years on the faculty of Indiana University’s Clarinet Teaching Workshop with Howard Klug. Paula has been named to Who's Who among America's High School and College Teachers. Paula is a graduate of Mississippi State University (BME) and Southern Methodist University (MM), with postgraduate study at the University of North Texas. Her principal teachers include Dr. Warren Lutz and Stephen Girko. Her website - www.clarinetcity.com - targets skill development for advancing clarinetists and features audio clips of student groups, a question and answer forum, conference notes and clarinet teaching materials.

Denis DiBlasio. After receiving his Masters Degree from the University of Miami, Denis DiBlasio joined the big band of legendary trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, serving as Maynard 's Musical Director for five years. During this time he honed his virtuosity on the baritone saxophone and flute as well as a prodigious scat-vocal technique, and developed estimable composing/ arranging skills. His scores have been published by Kendor, William Allen, Kjos, Doug Beach and Hal Leonard, and his several books on jazz improvisation and scat-singing are available through Kendor, Houston and Jamey Aebersold Publications. He is currently Director of the Jazz Department and conducts the Jazz Lab Band at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Mitchell Estrin is native of New York, Mitchell Estrin studied clarinet with Stanley Drucker at The Juilliard School where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees and was awarded the prestigious Naumburg Scholarship. Mr. Estrin is Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Florida, School of Music where he teaches Clarinet Performance, Woodwind Skills, and is Director of the University of Florida Clarinet Ensemble. Professor Estrin joined the faculty of the University of Florida in August 1999 after a twenty-year association with the New York Philharmonic. He performed more than 2,000 concerts with the orchestra as Principal Clarinetist, Second Clarinetist, and E-flat Clarinetist under such distinguished conductors as Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Erich Leinsdorf, Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado, Klaus Tennstedt, Andre Previn and Leonard Slatkin. He has accompanied the orchestra on 19 international tours, made dozens of recordings with the orchestra and on numerous occasions performed with the Philharmonic on the PBS award winning series, Live From Lincoln Center. Mr. Estrin continues to perform periodically as a guest artist with the orchestra and most recently performed in two subscription week series with the orchestra in May 2004 under Music Director Lorin Maazel. An active chamber musician, he has performed with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Newport Music Festival, and is a founding member of the Amadeus Ensemble. As a studio musician, Professor Estrin has recorded dozens of motion picture soundtracks for Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, and Warner Brothers on numerous feature films. He served as the Buffet Clarinet Educational Consultant at the International Clarinet Association 2001 Clarinet Fest in New Orleans. He performs exclusively on the Buffet R-13 clarinet. Send Mitchell a question.

Chris Ferrell is an Associate Band Director at L.D. Bell High School in Hurst, TX. Formerly Director of Bands at Harwood Junior High School in Bedford, Texas, he also serves on the staff of the acclaimed Texas Wind Symphony and performs with the Dallas Wind Symphony. His bands and organizations have presented clinics and concerts for the Ohio Music Educators Association and throughout the North Texas area including the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. Mr. Ferrell also serves as saxophone instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington Summer Music Camp. He received his B.M. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and did additional study at the Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of North Texas. Mr. Ferrell also served as woodwind instructor at Miami University and throughout the state of Ohio. Mr. Ferrell is named in Who's Who of America's Teachers and serves as a strong proponent of fundamental teaching and his students have earned positions in Region, Area and All-State band and orchestra organizations in Ohio and Texas. His bands and ensembles have been recognized for outstanding quality earning first-place and first-division honors in many competitions and festivals. He was recently named Teacher of the Year at Harwood Junior High School. Mr. Ferrell also instructs the Music component of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. As a woodwind artist Mr. Ferrell performs clinics and concerts throughout the United States and Europe. He has been a featured performer at numerous jazz festivals, conferences and trade shows. In addition to teaching and playing responsibilities, Mr. Ferrell works with the Yamaha Corporation and Vandoren in research and development of new products in the educational and professional performance fields.

Billy Kerr, a versatile musician, is an accomplished jazz artist, composer, arranger and clinician. Bill studied at the Juilliard School of Music and Queens College receiving a BA in music. His major studies were with Augustin Duques (clarinet), Joseph Allard (clarinet and saxophone) and Thomas Nyfenger (flute). His studies in composition and arranging began at Queens College with John Carisi and continued over the years with Don Sebesky, Manny Album, Jim McNeely, Roger Kellaway, and Vince Mendoza.After a four-year hitch in the Air Force Band, Billy established a busy career recording for television, films and commercials and gained extensive experience in the Broadway musical theatre.Billy has performed with a variety of artists covering every musical style. Most notably, they include Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles, Peter Allen, Henry Mancini, Julie Andrews, Sammy Davis Jr., and Mel Torme. He has also performed with jazz artists such as Phil Woods, Bob Mintzer, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band and The National Jazz Ensemble. Performances with the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and the Brooklyn Philharmonic under distinguished conductors like Gunther Schuller and Lukas Foss show yet another facet of his abilities.As tenor saxophonist with the New York Saxophone Quartet, Billy has performed in Europe, Japan, Canada and throughout the United States. In addition to concert performances, the Quartet has appeared on the “Tonight Show” and participated in many teaching clinics. The group has recorded several albums, all of which spotlight Billy’s skills as a soloist and writer. Since 2000 Billy has resided in Los Angeles, where he received his Masters degree at the University of Southern California. He remains active in L.A. appearing in concerts and recordings with the likes of Bill Holman, Lennie Niehaus. Clare Fischer, and Kurt Elling. Billy plays regularly in bands led by Buddy Childers, Bob Florence, Steve Huffsteter, Kim Richmond, Bruce Eskovitz(BEJO), and singer, Cathy Segal-Garcia. In 2005, Billy was a featured soloist at Fesival Jazz en Lima, Peru. While there, he played lead alto with Maria Schneider as well as led his own quartet in a series of concerts. In addition to his busy performing schedule, Billy writes CD reviews for “Saxophone Journal” and is on the faculty of Citrus College and the College of the Canyons.

Ginger Kroft-Barnetson is a performer and teacher with 15 years of experience. She has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras as well as the San Diego Symphony. Ginger is a member of the Monterey Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic and Santa Cruz Symphony orchestras and substitutes with numerous other Bay Area orchestras. In 2005 Ginger was invited to join the ADORNO ensemble, a chamber music group based in San Francisco "dedicated to bringing audiences closer to the process by which musicians and artists create their art." Since 1997 Ginger has been a member of the Worn Chamber Ensemble. This group is also based in San Francisco and presents the best in 20th and 21st century classical chamber music. Ginger is a faculty member at Santa Clara University. She is the Clarinet Instructor at Jordan Middle School (Palo Alto) and St. Francis High School (Mountain View). She is the Woodwind Instructor at Monta Vista High School (Cupertino) and a Visiting Artist at Fremont High School (Sunnyvale). Ginger teaches her pre-college students in her Sunnyvale studio. A graduate of Northwestern University, Bachelor of Music, Ginger completed a Master of Music degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was awarded a Departmental Honor.

Jay Mason attended CSU, Long Beach, playing lead alto and soprano saxophone in that school’s top-rated wind ensemble, jazz ensemble and orchestra. In 1981 he was a featured soloist at the North American Saxophone Alliance national convention, and in 1983 a saxophone quartet in which he played soprano saxophone were finalists in the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition. After graduation Jay started his freelance music career. He has performed with artists like Greg Osby, Tom Harrell, Barbara Morrison, Peter Erskine, Michael Feinstein, Suzanne Somers, Maureen McGovern, The Pacific Symphony, The San Diego Symphony, Kenny Rogers, Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa Manchester, Donny Osmond, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Jamie Lynn Siegler, Victoria Clarke,and Andy Williams, to name a few. He also performs as a member of the orchestras at the Ahmanson Theatre and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, including such recent hits as Wicked, The Drowsy Chaperone, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Disney’s High School Musical. He is currently a featured performer with the Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band, Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra, The American Winds and the Long Beach Municipal Band.The artists Jay has recorded with include John Lithgow, Take 6, Eddie Daniels, Lorraine Feather and Michael Feinstein. His motion picture credits include The Paper, Aladdin King of Thieves, Wedding Crashers, Just Like Heaven, Payback, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Television credits include Belle’s Magical Stories, The Other Half, The Howie Mandel Show, Dragon Tales, The Muppets Show, Femme Fatales & Ingenues, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story, several Warner Bros. cartoons and many commercials for both television and radio. Jay is a member of the faculty at California State University, Long Beach and is active as a clinician and guest artist throughout the country. He is also a Vandoren Artist and clinician.

Otis Murphy joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music in 2001 at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest faculty members in the history of the IU School of Music. His primary teachers include Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Eugene Rousseau, and Kenneth Fischer. Murphy holds the Prix de Perfectionnement (by a unanimous decision of the jury) from the Conservatoire National Régional de Musique, Cergy-Pontoise, France; the Master of Music degree from Indiana University, graduating with the Performer’s Certificate, the highest honor given to a performer at this institution; and the Bachelor of Music Education degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Georgia. Murphy has won numerous awards and prizes that include 2nd Prize in the Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition (1998) in Belgium, 3rd Prize in the Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition (1996) in France, 1st Prize in the Heida Hermanns Young Artist Competition, 2nd Prize in the Saint Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition, and the J. William Fulbright Grant that allowed saxophone study in France. Otis is an active saxophone soloist and clinician who is in great demand throughout the world. In addition to his frequent solo appearances throughout the United States, he has also performed and given saxophone classes in France, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Belgium, and Italy. Mr. Murphy has been the featured artist in numerous publications that include Saxophone Journal, Yamaha’s Backstage Pass, the United Kingdom’s Clarinet and Saxophone magazine, Japan’s Pipers magazine for wind players, and The Sax, one of Japan’s leading saxophone magazines. Memories of Dinant, Murphy’s debut compact disc recording with his wife, Haruko, on piano, has received critical acclaim and has sold out. His second solo compact disc will be released in 2005 on the Arizona University Recordings label.

Gregory Raden is principal clarinetist with the Dallas Symphony. Appointed to the Dallas Symphony in 1999, Raden has also served as a assistant principal of the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, principal clarinet of the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra and principal clarinet of the Charleston Symphony. He has served as guest principal with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony and has been a frequent substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Raden has been heard as soloist with the Dallas Symphony, National Symphony, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Raden has been regular teacher at the National Orchestral Institute, and has given master classes at Baylor University, University of North Texas, Texas Christian University, University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Maryland. He has been on the faculty of George Washington University and the College of Charleston and maintains a private studio in the Dallas area. A native of White Plains, NY, Raden began his early studies at the Juilliard school pre-college division with David Weber and then went on to the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Donald Montanaro where he graduated in 1994.

Matthew Sintchak joined the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the fall of 2001. Before coming to Whitewater, Sintchak taught at the University of Iowa, the University of Hartford, Nazareth College, Roberts Wesleyan College, and the Eastman School of Music. Sintchak has given saxophone performances throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan and has performed with the Hartford Symphony, the Portland Symphony (Maine), the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble on two tours of Japan. He is a regular member of the Ancia Saxophone Quartet (based in Minneapolis), Duo Nouveau (saxophone and guitar), and the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble. An avid supporter of contemporary music, he has commissioned and premiered music by numerous composers including Pulitzer-prize winner John Harbison, Gunther Schuller, Lawrence Fritts, Mark Engebretson, Michael Colgrass, and Yoshihisa Hirano. His primary teachers have been Kenneth Radnofsky, Ramon Ricker, George Garzone, and Claude Delangle. He has recorded for the Innova and Southport labels. Matthew received his B.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music and his M.M. Eastman School of Music. He also has Auditor Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris and a Performer’s Certificate Eastman School of Music. He received his DMA from Eastman School of Music.

Harry Skoler is Associate Professor of Woodwinds at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee in 1978, and a Master's of Music degree from New England Conservatory in 1986, where he studied with legendary jazz great Jimmy Giuffre. His recordings include Conversations in the Language of Jazz, Reflections on the Art of Swing - A Tribute to Benny Goodman, and A Work of Heart on Brownstone Recordings. He has authored articles on jazz education, including a "Pro-Workshop" article in Downbeat magazine, and has been included with a biography and philosophy of artistry in Gianluca Campagnolo's Volume 10 method book for clarinet, which features bios and tips from many of today's prominent clarinetists. He has garnered numerous national and international reviews, including reviews in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Jazziz among others. In addition to touring with his group, Harry reaches thousands of young people each year with the educational ensemble "Adventures With Jazz". Harry has been featured on many national radio interviews and on the nationally televised BET program "Jazz Discovery.”

Mike Tomaro has been the Director of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA since 1997. This saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger and educator earned his B.S. degree in Music Education from Duquesne University and his M.A. degree in Saxophone Performance from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Prior to his appointment at Duquesne, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for seventeen years as a member of the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, a unit of the prestigious "Pershing's Own" U.S. Army Band. While a member of this group, he served as its Enlisted Musical Director and performed for Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as heads of state from around the world. He also composed and/or arranged much of the Army Blues repertoire and was featured as a soloist on several of the group's albums and CDs. Mike is a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorses Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces and ligatures. Mike has five nationally released recordings under his own name that showcase his talents as both performer and writer - "Forgotten Dreams" (Seabreeze Jazz), "Dancing Eyes" (Seabreeze Jazz), and "Home Again" (Positive Music). His latest CD, "Nightowl Suite" was released in March 2005 on the Seabreeze Jazz label. This disc, Mike's first under his own name in ten years, features his compositions and arrangements as performed by the Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra, a group that he co-founded this past year. Additionally, Mike has also been featured on many other CDs as both performer and arranger, the most current being jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson's Grammy Award winning release, "RSVP" on the MCG Jazz label. As a composer and arranger, Mike's music has been performed by the likes of jazz greats Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Claudio Roditi, New York Voices, Al Vizzutti, and many more, as well as high schools, colleges and universities around the world. Over eighty of his compositions and arrangements are published by Doug Beach Music, Hal Leonard Publications, and Walrus Music. He is also affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers where he has received an ASCAP Plus award for the past four years, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the Pittsburgh Jazz Society, where he is member of its board of directors. Mike is in great demand both nationally and internationally as a guest soloist, adjudicator, and clinician.