The Juilliard Jazz Ensembles are a feature of Juilliard Jazz Studies, an innovative program that combines education in the history and tradition of jazz with unparalleled professional performance opportunities. The faculty is comprised of distinguished educators and musicians who challenge students to be equally skilled as improvisers, bandleaders, sidemen, and educators. The Juilliard Jazz Ensembles tour and perform regularly at The Juilliard School, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and the Blue Note in New York City, often featuring legendary guest artists such as Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard, among others.

 

Ted Rosenthal, piano (featured artist)

Ted Rosenthal is one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation. He tours worldwide with his trio and as a soloist, and has performed with many jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and James Moody. Winner of the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, Mr. Rosenthal has released 15 CDs as a bandleader. His solo album, The 3 B’s, received four stars from DownBeat Magazine. Mr. Rosenthal has performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. In addition, he is the pianist of choice for many top jazz vocalists, including Helen Merrill, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Barbara Cook. He appeared on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, and performed with David Sanborn on NBC’s Night Music.

 

Mr. Rosenthal’s orchestral performances include solo and featured appearances with the Detroit Symphony, Boston Pops, Grand Rapids Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Fort Worth Symphony. He has composed music for dance, including “Uptown,” for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “The Survivor,” a concerto for piano and orchestra, has been performed by the Manhattan Jazz Philharmonic and the Rockland Symphony Orchestra, with Mr. Rosenthal at the piano. In 2011, he premiered his second jazz piano concerto, “Jazz Fantasy,” with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in New York City.

 

Mr. Rosenthal received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he now teaches jazz and sits on the board. He also teaches at The Juilliard School. In addition, he presents jazz clinics throughout the world, often in conjunction with his touring. Mr. Rosenthal was a contributing editor for Piano and Keyboard magazines, and has published piano arrangements and feature articles for Piano Today, the Piano Stylist, and The Juilliard Journal.

 

Chase Baird, saxophone
Chase Baird has been described as “a strong new talent” (allaboutjazz.com), “the future of jazz music and the saxophone” (Grammy Award‒winning trumpeter Randy Brecker), and a musician of “remarkable clarity and logic” (DownBeat Magazine). As a youth, Mr. Baird was discovered and mentored by the late great tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker. He has since performed across the globe with artists such as jazz icons Herbie Hancock, Randy Brecker, Jason Moran, Aaron Parks, and the Mingus Big Band. He has also worked with popular musicians Morgan James and Matthew Morrison. His debut album Crosscurrent was included as one of the Huffington Post’s 2011 Best Jazz Albums of the Year. Mr. Baird is a graduate of The Juilliard School in New York City.

Joseph Boga, trumpet

Joseph Boga, a 2014 graduate of The Juilliard School, is equally comfortable performing in the classical and jazz genres. His trumpet teachers have included Wynton Marsalis, Mark Gould, Chris Gekker, Joe Magnarelli, and Chris Jaudes. In the classical arena, he has appeared as a soloist with groups that include the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic (as their 2014‒2015 Emerging Artist), Bucknell University Wind Ensemble, and Scranton Brass Orchestra. He is a member of the four-trumpet group the New York Trumpet Ensemble, led by Mark Gould, and has performed with a variety of brass quintets and orchestras in the New York tri-state area. In the jazz arena, he has performed with Professor Cunningham and His Old School, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, the Wycliffe Gordon Septet and Big Band, Phil Woods and Rick Chamberlain’s Deer Head Inn Big Band, and many more. As a teenager, he had the privilege of appearing multiple times with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet. This spring he will perform on the Boston Celebrity Series as part of one of Rob Kapilow’s “What Makes It Great?” presentations, focusing on the music of Duke Ellington and featuring the Kyle Athayde Dance Party, a group of which Mr. Boga is a founding member. As a composer and arranger, Mr. Boga has written for brass orchestra, big band, and string orchestra; recently completed his third commissioned work for choir; and written extensively for jazz combo. He maintains a small, private trumpet studio.

David Baron, bass
Originally from Simsbury, Connecticut, bassist David Baron has performed or recorded with numerous renowned musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Eric Reed, Joe Lovano, Harold Mabern, Curtis Fuller, Benny Green, Jimmy Greene, Wycliffe Gordon, Walt Weiskopf, Carl Allen, Geoff Keezer, Bill Evans (saxophonist), Carla Cook, and many others. In 2009, Baron was selected as one of 15 semifinalists from around the world for the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition. As part of the competition, he performed at Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History with drummer Carl Allen and pianist Geoff Keezer. In 2011, Mr. Baron won second place for the International Society of Bassists’ Scott LaFaro Jazz Competition. He has toured the world with numerous groups in places such as Australia, Korea, Russia, Romania, Costa Rica, and the Cayman Islands. Mr. Baron has studied with many great jazz artists, including Ron Carter, Reuben Rogers, Ray Drummond, and classical bassist James VanDemark. Mr. Baron holds a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media from the Eastman School of Music, and a master’s degree in Jazz Performance from The Juilliard School. He currently resides in New York City.

Jimmy Macbride, drums
Jimmy Macbride, 23, is a drummer-composer based in New York City. He has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Dorough, Taylor Eigsti, and Harish Raghavan. Coming from an artistic family (his father is a composer and his mother a visual artist), Mr. Macbride began playing drums at age three and gravitated toward jazz music at an equally young age. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied privately with Carl Allen, Billy Drummond, and Kenny Washington. He is a regular performer throughout New York City, drumming at such venues as Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Smalls, the Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, and the Blue Note. He performs regularly with different groups, including the Jimmy Greene Quartet, Steven Feifke Septet, and Lucas Pino Nonet. He is featured on various recordings, including bassist Clovis Nicolas’ 9 Stories, released on Sunnyside Records in March 2014. In addition, Mr. Macbride is currently a faculty member of the jazz department at the Calhoun School in New York City. Other performance highlights include a recent European tour with Grammy Award‒winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard and playing at Jazz Standard with Jimmy Greene to celebrate the release of his new recording, Beautiful Life.