Clinicians

Christine Guter

 

 

 

 

Curtis Gaesser

Curtis Gaesser had been teaching in the Folsom/Cordova School District since 1984. He has been at Folsom High School since 1984 and retired in May of 2023 after 39 years teaching. He taught Marching Band, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Choir, 3 Jazz Bands, Concert Band, Color Guard, and Drum line.  His Jazz Band I has been awarded ‘Best High School Jazz Band’ 19 times from Downbeat Magazine since 1993. The Folsom HS Jazz Choir I has won “Best High School Vocal Jazz Group” over 26 times since 1994. Curtis received the Folsom Cordova School District “Teacher of the Year” in 1990 and 2011. He was the ‘California State Jazz Educator’ of the Year in 2003. In 2008, he was awarded the “Annual National Achievement Award in Jazz Education” by Downbeat Magazine, and in 2008 the “Music Achievement Award” by Sacramento News and Review. The city of Folsom presented him with the ‘Person of the Year’ award in 2001.  In 2016 he was awarded ‘Most Outstanding” Teacher award from the city of Folsom, and the Northern California Band Directors Association ‘Most Outstanding Educator Award’. In 2017 he was awarded best “Music Educator” for Northern California by the California Music Educators Association. 

Curtis Gaesser was a top 10 finalist Grammy nominee for the Grammy Educator Award in 2018. 

In 2023 he was awarded the John La Porta Jazz educator award from the Jazz Education Network. This is one of one award presented each year. It was presented in Florida. It is sponsored and funded by the Berklee School of Music in Boston. 

Also in 2023, The city of Folsom awarded him the Teacher of the Decade award. 

In October, of 2023, Curtis Gaesser was inducted into the Downbeat Educator Hall of Fame and presented in the October issue of Downbeat magazine. 

In 2024 Curtis was inducted into the California Alliance for Jazz, State Hall of Fame Award presented at the CASMEC conference. 

Curtis started the Folsom Jazz Festival in 1989 and it is now the largest educational Jazz Festival in California. There are 144 groups all in one day last year.

In 2023 Curtis Gaesser started the nonprofit Music School called the “Live Performing Arts Academy” in Folsom California. With this start, the new “California Jazz Championships” began in 2023 in the city of Folsom and has doubled in size for April of 2024. Go to Liveperformingartsacademy.com for more updated information. 

The Folsom High School Jazz Band has won sweepstakes as the best Instrumental group at the Reno Jazz festival many times and the last 6 years in a row when it was still a competitive festival.  The Folsom High School Jazz Choir has won sweepstakes at the Reno Jazz Festival many times as the best Vocal group since 1991. 

The Jazz Band has won the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival three times as the best Jazz Band in 2013, and 2020. The group has made the finals as the top three many times since 1990. The Band has performed as an artist at the Monterey Jazz Festival many times since 1992. 

The Jazz Choir has won the Monterey Next Generation Jazz festival 17 times since 1993. They have performed as an artist at the Monterey Jazz Festival 17 times as well. 

The Folsom High School Jazz groups have performed throughout Europe many times since 1997. Montreux, North Sea, Tuscia, Vienne, and many other jazz festivals throughout Europe. 

 

 

Jeremy Fox

Grammy-nominated Dr. Jeremy Fox is a Professor of Choral/Vocal Jazz at Mt. San Antonio College, directing vocal jazz ensembles, teaching jazz voice lessons, as well as Audio Arts classes.  For 14 years, Dr. Fox taught full-time at the School for Music Vocations program, for many years conducting vocal and instrumental ensembles alongside renowned arranger Phil Mattson. He is excited to help craft a newly-created jazz certificate program at Mt. San Antonio College to go hand-in-hand with their phenomenal award-winning ensembles.  The new certificate is being designed to serve to empower musicians with skills not taught at most traditional collegiate programs.  He is in demand as a festival and conference clinician, and has served as guest conductor for fifteen All-State ensembles throughout the U.S. and Canada. His ensembles have been invited numerous times to prestigious conferences such as the Jazz Education Network’s Annual Conference – and his ensemble was the only collegiate group to represent vocal jazz at the most recent American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Dr. Fox earned his Bachelors degree in Piano-Jazz Studies from Western Michigan University, and his Masters and Doctorate in Jazz Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.  As a student, he was the recipient of 11 awards from Downbeat Magazine, including ones for: Jazz Song, Jazz Arrangement, Studio Engineering, and for the Vocal Jazz Group he conducted as an undergraduate student.  As an instructor, his ensembles have been recognized by Downbeat Magazine as “Best Community College Small Vocal Jazz Ensemble” 3 times, while earning Outstanding Performance 3 other occasions. For 20 years, Jeremy led the SMV Vocal Jazz Camps in the U.S. and Canada, and has led 15 annual Jazz Harmony Retreats – empowering educational workshop for choral educators who have simply may have never had the opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts of jazz arranging and accompanying.

Dr. Fox publishes his compositions through his own website, and is a member of ASCAP.  His arrangements are also published by Anchor Music Publications, UNC Jazz Press, iJazzMusic, Alfred Music, and Sheet Music Plus.  He has been commissioned by dozens of high schools and colleges to write pieces for their vocal jazz ensembles, concert/chamber choirs, big bands, and studio orchestras. His music has been written for or performed by: Take 6, The Real Group, New York Voices, m-pact, Cadence, Theo Bleckmann, Terence Blanchard, John Secada, and Metropolitan Opera singers Eric Owens and Denyce Graves. He is the Musical Director of Bossa Nova Sinfónico with a Brazilian quartet including singer Rose Max, and with this group has conducted the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, and twice conducted the Costa Rican National Orchestra.  Audio from the concert in Costa Rica earned a Latin Grammy Award, and videos have yielded over 15 millions views on YouTube.  He has also twice been invited to guest conduct the famed Henry Mancini Institute Jazz Orchestra in Miami, Florida.  His inaugural album was entitled “With Love” and features his big band and orchestral arrangements for a phenomenal line-up of singers, including Rose Max and Ramatis Moraes, Kate Reid, Kate McGarry, Lauren Kinhan and Peter Eldridge (from the New York Voices), Anders Edenroth (from The Real Group), Derek Fawcett, Wendy Pedersen, Sunny Wilkinson, and Kevin Mahogany. His arrangement of “All My Tomorrows” featuring Kate McGarry was nominated for “Best Arrangement – Instruments and
Vocals” at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.