The Reno Jazz Festival features a dynamic group of esteemed and experienced Artist Educators, who also are performing and composing jazz musicians. These select professionals will review and critique student group performances, choose the groups to be featured in the Festival Showcase and hold clinics and daytime concerts.
Artist Educators
Meet our artist educators
Aja Burrell Wood
Aja Burrell Wood is an ethnomusicologist, educator and curator with a background in development and violin performance. As the managing director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, she develops curricula, programs and initiatives, teaches, and curates events, among other activities, related to gender and justice in jazz. Wood also conducts research on musical community among Black classical musicians, women in jazz, jazz in the digital era, music and civic engagement in Harlem and other genres related to the African diaspora. She has taught courses on music, history and culture and has held director positions at Gate Pass Entertainment and at Wynton Marsalis Enterprises.
Richard Lloyd Giddens, Jr.
Richard Lloyd Giddens, Jr. is the director of jazz studies at Fresno State University and a recording artist at both Tzadik Records and Orenda Records. “Mimosas” was his debut album. He is part of the Los Angeles-based band Burning Ghosts, which have headlined international jazz festivals, such as Jazz em Agosto, Saalfelden and Angel City. He earned his BFA (2007) and MFA (2009) from the California Institute of the Arts, where world-renowned bassist and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Charlie Haden mentored him for five years. Giddens also is a 2018 California Arts Council grant recipient.
Jon Hatamiya
Trombonist, composer and arranger Jon Hatamiya is a promising musician hailing from the Sacramento area and rapidly making a name for himself on both the East and West Coast music scenes. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in jazz trombone performance from Manhattan School of Music and two Master of Music degrees from University of Southern California and the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance. He has shared the bandstand with groups such as the Bob Mintzer Big Band and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in addition to performing with his own groups, jazz-rock fusion group XD-7 and the Jon Hatamiya Big Band. Jon has received global accolades, including the 2021 ASCAP Johnny Mandel Prize and the 2015 and 2021 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award.
Nichole Heglund
Nichole Heglund is a saxophonist and music educator in Reno, ÁùºÏ±¦µä where she has taught and inspired youth bands and choirs since 2003. She became the Education Director for the Reno Jazz Orchestra in 2019 where she continues to share her knowledge and passion for the business. As a versatile musician, Nichole serves as a guest conductor, active clinician, and respected adjudicator throughout Northern ÁùºÏ±¦µä and California. She has most recently been a guest director for the Reno Jazz Orchestra and is director of an all-female jazz ensemble in Reno, showcasing her dedication to breaking musical boundaries. Nichole received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno.
Bailey Hinkley Grogan
Bailey Elizabeth Hinkley Grogan is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, educator, and performer based in Denver, CO and Los Angeles, CA. She is currently receiving her Doctorate in Musical Arts from University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Studio Music Jazz Voice and received her Master of Music in 2019 from California State University, Long Beach. An award-winning vocalist, Bailey has received 8 DownBeat Awards including Outstanding Graduate Performance in 2022. Her 2023 album release, Meditations: Live from the Tank for Sonic Arts, is a testament to both her musical identity as a sound healer and prowess in improvisatory music.
John Hollenbeck
Composer/percussionist and six-time GRAMMY nominee John Hollenbeck is renowned in both jazz and new-music worlds. He has gained widespread recognition as the driving force behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and the ambitious John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, groups with roots in jazz, world music, and contemporary composition. The recipient of a B.M. in Percussion and a M.M. in Jazz Composition from the Eastman School of Music, Hollenbeck has since received numerous awards and commissions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. He joined McGill University Schulich School of Music’s faculty as professor of Jazz Drums and Improvisation in 2015.
Julien Knowles
Los Angeles-based trumpeter, educator and composer Julien Knowles has had the distinct honor of being mentored by and playing alongside acclaimed international jazz musicians, such as Herbie Hancock, Gerald Clayton and Joe LaBarbera. During his graduate studies, where he was given a full-fellowship within the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (Class of 2023), he honed his talents for both performance and composition. His 2023 composition entitled “Tempest Quake” for quartet and string quartet was selected as a winner of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Bridges Composition Competition. He holds a weekly residency at The York, which features a revolving cast of LA’s most coveted jazz musicians. Julien is a CarolBrass endorsed artist.
Chiquita Magic
Chiquita Magic, a.k.a. Isis Giraldo, is a Colombian born artist and producer. She uses microtonal synthesizers, her voice, and a drum machine to create a unique sound that can be described as futuristic electro pop with elements of EDM, hip hop, cumbia, funk, reggaeton, choirs and jazz. Collaborators include Genevieve Artadi, Louis Cole, KNOWER, John Hollenbeck and Justin Brown (amongst others).
Hannah Marks
Hannah Marks is a bassist, composer and educator hailing from Des Moines, Iowa and currently residing in New York City. Her debut album, Outsider, Outlier, showcases her love for punk, noise, and free improvisation. She is a 2023 MacDowell Fellow and an alum of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. She has played alongside artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Anna Webber, Miles Okazaki, Kalia Vandever and Marcus Printup. Her passion for sharing her love of music with communities is evident within the masterclasses she has led at colleges across the country.
Matt Mayhall
Matt Mayhall has been characterized by Modern Drummer as an artist “who rolls his diverse skills into one untidy, rumbling package.” Mayhall has released two critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader, receiving favorable reviews in publications such as Downbeat, Bandcamp Daily and Stereogum. He has gigged with many internationally-known improvisers including Jeff Parker, Chris Speed, Bennie Maupin, Brad Shepik, David Binney, Todd Sickafoose, Eyvind Kang, Anthony Wilson and Tim Lefebvre. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest and co-leads the Sound Creation Trio, a collaborative ensemble with Portland-based guitarist Mike Gamble and bassist Andrew Jones. Mayhall earned his MFA in Jazz Studies from California Institute of The Arts. He has both MM and BM degrees in Percussion from the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno.
Gary Mayne
Gary Mayne is a performer, recording musician and educator who has lent his talents to universities, public schools, conferences and festivals around the world. As a big band performer, he has performed and recorded regularly with groups such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and Arturo Sandoval’s Mambo Big Band. As an educator, Gary served as the trombone instructor at the LeBam Music Camp in Beirut, Lebanon as well as an ensemble director at the Cyprus Jazz Workshop in Nicosia, Cyprus. He has also performed at the IAJE or JEN conferences as a professional and at the International Trombone Conference. In the classical realm, Gary has performed with the Colorado Symphony, the Reno Philharmonic, and as a member of the SPARK Brass Quintet.
Nicole McCabe
Nicole McCabe is a saxophonist, composer and educator who works and lives in Los Angeles. She studied jazz at Portland State University and University of Southern California. Her musicality extends from post-bop modernism to the avant-garde, evident in works as both composer and performer. She recently released Landscapes, her sophomore album as a bandleader, on the Spanish label Fresh Sound, following a debut on Minaret Records, which is also home to her electro-jazz duo Dolphin Hyperspace. Recent collaborators include Genevieve Artadi, 10.4 Rog, and Jacob Mann.
Ruthie Meadows
Ruthie Meadows is a guitarist, bassist, violinist, percussionist and assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno. Her research focuses on poetics and aurality in the Hispanophone and circum-Caribbean region. Currently, she’s examining Africanity’s relationship to gender, emancipatory desire, state religious policy and belief in the African traditionalist movement of Santería and Ifá in Cuba. Previously, Meadows studied the interplay between new media and queer poetics in Dominican literature and popular music. Also, she published a historiography of the audibility and visuality of Afro-Caribbean vernacular practices in New Orleans and their ties to tourism. Meadows holds a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh Murray
Saxophonist Josh Murray has been Band Director at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento since 1998. Rio’s AM Jazz Ensemble has been a finalist at the Essentially Ellington Festival eleven times, was chosen as winners of the 2019 national “Perform with Bob Mintzer” competition, recently hosted and opened a concert with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and has performed worldwide. Rio’s musicians and bands have won dozens of DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards, and are three-time winners of the Charles Mingus Festival’s combo category. Murray has performed with Phil Woods, Jimmy Smith, Peter Erskine, Bobby Shew, Donny McCaslin, Wycliffe Gordon, Ken Peplowski and the Drifters. Murray is a member of the Cunha Big Band and the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra. He is a contributing author to Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz, Vol. 2.
Naomi Nakanishi
Naomi Nakanishi is a dynamic pianist, improviser, composer, inviting listeners with unique melodies, sonorous harmonies and unconventional phrasing. Their work aims to reconstruct, experiment and interact with sounds influenced by their comprehensive background in Black American Music, indie-folk tunes and classical piano. They have performed at major festivals such as the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Panama Jazz Festival and the national Jazz Education Network Conference with both big bands and small groups. As an Asian American, Naomi focuses on projects with an emphasis on social justice issues through original compositions and poetry. Their organization, Womxn Mean Business, celebrates femme/non-binary musicians while providing performance opportunities. Naomi holds a Master’s Degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute.
Cathlene Pineda
Cathlene Pineda is a sought-after pianist and composer in the Los Angeles area. In June 2020, Orenda Records released Cathlene’s third album of original music, “Rainbow Baby,” hailed by critics as “beautifully articulated” (Jazz Times). Highlights of her recent projects include a collaboration with the LA Philharmonic and the Weimar Film Institute, a two-year-long collaboration with the Big Show Dance Company, and a commission by the Occidental Symphony Orchestra to be premiered in March 2024. As a performer, Cathlene has worked with an extensive list of notable musicians, including Charlie Haden, Bobby Bradford, Wadada Leo Smith and Vinny Golia. She is a professor on faculty at The California Institute of the Arts and Occidental College.
Kerry Politzer
Kerry Politzer is a Portland-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator. She is on the music faculty of Portland State University and she has also taught at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, the University of Portland, and the Oregon Jazz Workshop. Kerry received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Rowan University. Kerry has released seven jazz CDs as a leader, and has been a featured sideman on albums of George Colligan and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, among numerous others. She currently leads Bossa PDX, a samba-jazz and bossa nova group that has performed nationwide at prestigious venues.
Tina Raymond
Tina Raymond is an accomplished drummer, composer, bandleader and educator. The director of Jazz Studies at California State University Northridge, she received a DownBeat Educator Achievement Award (2020), and is president-elect of California Alliance for Jazz. Her teaching credits include Los Angeles City College, The Herbie Hancock Institute, University of Michigan, Bard College and Idyllwild Arts. Raymond is a co-leader of Esthesis Quartet with Dawn Clement, Elsa Nilsson, and Emma Dayhuff. In addition to leading projects of her own, she performs as a sidewoman with the likes of Bobby Bradford, Eric Revis, Rachel Eckroth, Vinny Golia and Billy Mohler. She received a Masters of Fine Arts in Jazz from CalArts in 2010 and a Bachelor of Music in classical percussion and jazz studies from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
Sarah Rossy
Performer, composer, producer and educator Sarah Rossy is based in Tio'tia:ke/Montréal. Sarah combines influences of jazz, live-processed electronics, and visual projections into autobiographical, ethereal, and socially-outspoken soundscapes for a truly unique result. Having performed hundreds of live shows of original music in under a decade and being the first Canadian finalist of the Ella Fitzgerald International Voice Competition, Sarah Rossy is an ever-expanding curious artist. Sarah holds both a B.Mus and M.Mus from McGill University, where she was mentored by composers John Hollenbeck and Christine Jensen. Sarah's research has been graciously supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the SOCAN Foundation.
Jamie Shew
Heralded for her inventive ways of arranging and stylizing a song, Jamie Shew’s music has rapidly gained critically acclaimed attention internationally. Jamie prides herself on being a versatile musician - her voice molds seamlessly into a variety of styles and flavors. Her 2018 album, Eyes Wide Open, features world renowned instrumentalists Larry Koonse, Darek Oles, Joe Bagg and Jason Harnell. Jamie is currently working on her “Duoly Noted” project with Jeremy Siskind, a big band EP, and a full-length quartet album featuring Jamie’s new arrangements and compositions. In addition to a dynamic performance career, Jamie has been the Director of Jazz & Contemporary Voice Studies at Fullerton College in the Los Angeles area for the past 21 years and continues to be an in-demand guest artist, clinician, conductor and adjudicator for jazz festivals and concerts around the globe.
Jessika Smith
Portland-based composer, saxophonist, and music educator Jessika Smith holds her Master’s degree in Jazz Composition from the University of Oregon, where she studied with Steve Owen. She has taught for many years at the EWU Jazz Dialogue Summer Camp, regularly teaches at the Seattle Saxophone Institute Summer Camp, and the Seattle JazzEd Prep Camp. She has adjudicated at the PLU Weathermon Jazz Festival and The Oregon Jazz Festival amongst various other festivals. Her 2013 composition, “Lights,” for large jazz ensemble was the winner of the first annual Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra Composition Contest. She is proud to be a featured composer with Brava Jazz Publishing and plays frequently in Oregon and Washington with assorted jazz groups.
Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford, acclaimed trumpet player based in New York, has been hailed as “one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player” by piano legend McCoy Tyner. Stafford is recognized as an incredibly gifted and versatile player, he combines a deep love of melody with his own brand of spirited and adventurous lyricism. Stafford’s exceptionally expressive and well-defined musical talent allows him to dance in and around the rich trumpet tradition of his predecessors while making his own inroads. Stafford is the Director of Jazz Studies and Chair of Instrumental Studies at Temple University, founder and band leader of the Terell Stafford Quintet, and Managing and Artistic Director of the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia (JOP).
Julian Tanaka
Julian Tanaka is a clarinet/saxophone player and composer from Las Vegas, NV. He currently teaches jazz at his alma maters, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Las Vegas. He earned his degrees in jazz composition from UNLV (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM). From composing traditional big band charts to conducting large ensemble free improvisations to arranging strings and horns for touring artists and production shows on the Las Vegas Strip - Julian has been afforded varied writing opportunities. His two albums, Double Fist (2019) and Delicious (2023), showcase his abilities as composer, player, and conductor.
Anna Webber
Anna Webber is a saxophonist, flutist and composer. Born in Vancouver, she pursued her musical education at McGill University, followed by advanced studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Jazz Institute Berlin. Webber's work has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship for her contributions to music composition. Her discography as a leader or co-leader is marked by critically acclaimed albums that showcase her innovative approach. Most notably, her album "Clockwise" was celebrated in the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, and her collaborative effort in the Webber/Morris Big Band resulted in the album "Both Are True," which was acknowledged among The New York Times' best jazz albums. Her contributions to jazz and classical music continue to resonate, reflecting her dedication to exploring new musical idioms.