I graduated from The University of Kansas with a degree in Music Education in 2000, and then hung out an extra year for boring logistical reasons, doing a year of Master's degree work in choral conducting and working as a teaching assistant, directing two vocal jazz ensembles.  I also taught the same two groups during my last year of undergrad work (although it was volunteer work, for the experience, of course).

After KU, I immediately moved to Denton, TX to attend the University of North Texas as a Masters' student in Jazz Studies: Arranging.  I directed the UNT Jazz Singers II for two years and graduated in 2003, heading for Sacramento, where I'd been offered a Part-time faculty position as the director of vocal jazz.

My main influences and mentors at KU were Dan Gailey (director of jazz studies), Simon Carrington (director of choral activities), Norman Paige (my private voice instructor), and the members of the music education faculty, particularly Alice-Ann Darrow and Christopher Johnson, who did well to bring me a healthy and highly useful dose of interest in the academic side of college teaching.  

It was just good fortune that I wound up at KU, I think.  I might have gone to Kansas State University, but KU's scholarship package turned out to be more appealing, and I was generally a KU sports fan.  Pretty awful reasons, in retrospect, to choose a school, but it worked out brilliantly.  KU was/is a wonderfully forward-thinking institution, with a liberal atmosphere that shaped much of who I am today.  I started as a Music Theater/Voice major, but changed to music education after I spent a couple semesters around the jazz department, singing first in the #2 vocal jazz group and then making it into the six-voice Jazz Singers, in which I'd spend a total of five years.  Dan Gailey was initially Jazz Singers' director, and then he passed the group's direction to Mitos (Cox) Andaya, from whom I also learned a great deal.  I got the bulk of the foundation of my current musical aesthetic (leaning toward contemporary jazz and using instrumental influences strongly in my vocal writing) from Dan, who is a world-class jazz composer/arranger.  Dan and Mitos both encouraged me to bring in my early arrangements (you won't see many of those in this catalog anymore!) into the Jazz Singers set, and Dan helped put me in touch with Gene Aitken and the UNC Jazz Press, who published my charts and gave me my first exposure to vocal jazz directors.  Gailey also encouraged me to work on my jazz piano chops by putting me in his excellent Jazz Ensemble I in my junior year.  My first jazz piano gig, actually, was with that band at the IAJE conference in New York in 1998, playing with David Liebman!  Dan's willingness to let me teach the #2 and #3 vocal jazz ensembles at KU gave me a great way to try out some arranging ideas, so I wrote a lot for those groups and added to my early "catalog" of charts.  This experience also helped me as I was getting into grad school and hoping to work as a teaching assistant.

Simon Carrington was one of the founding members of the legendary Kings' Singers, and his first job after retiring from that group was as the director of choral activities at KU.  I was very fortune to have the same tenure there as Simon, and the first traditional choral group in which I sang was an eight-voice contemporary choral group called Oread Consort, made up mostly of upperclassmen and graduate students.  I eventually sang in the other two advanced choirs under Carrington's direction, affording me the opportunity to take some wonderful tours to England and Brazil and to sing a great deal of challenging, diverse, interesting and beautiful choral repertoire.  Carrington is throughly talented with a deep understanding of a wide range of musical styles, and his openness and appreciation of jazz was incredibly gratifying to me throughout my time in his program.

My singular reason for attending UNT was to study jazz arranging with Paris Rutherford.  Of course, the fact that UNT was/is one of the very top tier jazz studies institutions in the world meant that I'd be surrounded by supremely talented classmates, and I'd have the opportunity to make very fine music and set up high expectations for myself and my students in the future.  Still, the most crucial part of my UNT experience was my arranging study with Paris, which brought a new perspective and a dose of reality to my writing.  I learned a great deal about voice-leading and harmonic motion from Paris, and he was able to reign in my early tendency to put every idea I could possibly think of into every chart.  An equally crucial part of my time at UNT was my sort-of apprenticeship under Paris.  He gave me a huge amount of practical advice about being a college professor and professional musician that benefits me nearly every day.  

Rosana Eckert was also an important influence on me at UNT, of course.  I only studied jazz voice with her for a semester, but being around her and seeing her work with all of the jazz voice majors gave me a strong sense of what it means to be a respectable professional musician and educator.  She's also a brilliant jazz vocalist, of course, an expert improvisor and excellent arranger.  Dan Haerle, Mike Steinel, Neil Slater and the rest of the world-class jazz faculty created an environment of excellence, accountability and opportunity, and they provided an ideal model for a collegiate jazz faculty.

The reason I felt I needed to answer the second question in conjunction with the first is that my college education absolutely set the foundation for my professional work today.  I think four other factors played major roles in my ability to work as an arranger, clinician and vocal jazz director today: 1. My early and persistent development of my website and email mailings to a growing list of colleagues in vocal jazz education, 2. Attending IAJE conferences each year from 1998 to 2007, 3. Working as a clinician and adjudicator at an ever-increasing pace and with an expanding geography and (perhaps most importantly), 4. Creating, and making available, full demo recordings for nearly all of my arrangements, most recently with the vocal assistance of my wife, the amazing Julia Dollison, who provides an excellent model for high school and college jazz choir members, making it more desirable than ever to use my charts as educational tools in the classroom.

That's it.  I've just written the longest sentence of my life, and it's time to move on.  

Last updated on January 17, 2010 by Kerry Marsh