Texas State University Jazz Ensemble

Tue, Oct 22

The Jazz Ensemble is the top jazz band in the Texas State University School of Music. Comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, the ensemble performs several concerts per year showcasing a wide range of musical styles. The Jazz Ensemble also serves as the host band for Texas State’s Hill Country Jazz Festival and does a yearly collaboration with the Department of Theatre/Dance in a performance of the Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite. The Jazz Ensemble has performed internationally at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the ProJazz Institute in Chile, as well as nationally at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival and PASIC. In 2018 the band was the featured university jazz band at the Texas Music Educators Association convention, in 2019 at the Denton Jazz and Arts Festival, as well as the Texas Jazz Festival and the Eddie Durham Jazz Festival in 2023 and 2024. Each year, the jazz program at Texas State hosts several jazz luminaries for concerts and clinics. Recent guests with the Jazz Ensemble include Conrad Herwig, John Riley, James Morrison, Peter Erskine, Joel Frahm, Jim McNeely, Doug Lawrence, and Steve Houghton, Terrell Stafford, and Brian Bromberg.