Faculty, Guest Artists, Staff

2024 UNC Summer Jazz Workshop Faculty

FACULTY 

Stephen Anderson – Director, piano, theory/improv, combos
Rahsaan Barber – saxophone, combos, improv
Nathan Warner – trumpet
Rebecca Kleinmann – flute
Kate McGarry – vocal jazz
Gregg Gelb – saxophones, combos
Jerald Shynett – trombone, combos
JC Martin – guitar
Jason Foureman – bass, combos
Dan Davis – drums, jazz history, basic music skills
Juan Álamo – percussion, combos
Ed Paolantonio – theory, combos
Andy Bechtel – journalism

STAFF

Rebecca Clemens – Associate Director, combo instructor
Jonathan Minnick – Head Workshop Counselor
Matt DiDonna – Counselor, combo coach
Andrew Weiss – Workshop Counselor, combo coach
Christopher Law – Workshop Counselor, bassist
Sam Bivona – Workshop Counselor, bassist

FACULTY AND STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

BECCA CLEMENS, is Associate Director of the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop.  In 2021, Ms. Clemens was honored as Pollard’s Teacher of the Year and, in 2023, she was named the Central Region Jazz Educator of the Year. In addition to her role at Pollard, Ms. Clemens serves as a low brass instructor with the UNC Marching Tar Heels and holds the position of Associate Director of the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop. She is also an active freelance trombonist in the Triangle area, performing with a wide range of groups, including the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, North Carolina Theater, Moore County Brass Quintet, and the Raleigh Symphony.

Ms. Clemens holds professional membership in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the North Carolina Music Educators Association (NCMEA).  She is currently serving as Chair Elect for the Central Region of the NC Jazz Educators Division of NCMEA.

Ms. Clemens holds a Bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree from Texas State University. She currently lives in Chapel Hill, where she operates a small private low brass studio. In her free time, she enjoys driving her Ford Bronco, spending quality time with her four brothers, and traveling overseas to play historical trombone.

RAHSAAN BARBER – Since earning a Master’s Degree in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 2005, Rahsaan Barber (Assistant Professor) has set out on a singular path of musical excellence in performance, composition, education, and entrepreneurship. Residing proudly in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, Rahsaan enjoys a career that encompasses performing and recording in an ever-expanding range of musical styles, including jazz, blues, funk, classical, fusion, soul, Latin, and world music.

Rahsaan’s passionate, sincere, and studious approach to music-making has garnered professional appearances onstage with heavyweights including the Temptations, Delfeayo Marsalis, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Duffy Jackson, Winard Harper, Kirk Franklin, and the Wooten Brothers. The saxophonist has performed on many of the world’s most prestigious stages for music, including The Ryman, The Village Vanguard, Birdland, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Rahsaan has joined the ranks of the nation’s rising jazz stars as the leader of his own instrumental band, Everyday Magic; co-leader of Latin-jazz septet El Movimiento; and the creator, bandleader, songwriter, and producer of emerging hip-hop, soul band The Megaphones. In addition, he has built a reputation as a standout jazz producer with the founding of his record label, Jazz Music City, in August of 2011. The label launched with the release of Everyday Magic, an album featuring Rahsaan’s Nashville-based quintet. The album was awarded the rare honor of Editor’s Pick by DownBeat Magazine, along with receiving high praise from both critics and audiences. Since the release of Everyday Magic, Rahsaan has become an in-demand producer for Nashville’s rising jazz artists, including singer/songwriter Stephanie Adlington and trumpeter Imer Santiago.

Rahsaan is also an accomplished music educator. In August of 2005, at the young age of 25, he was hired by Belmont University to teach at the celebrated music school’s saxophone studio. Promoted to a full-time instructor for the last three years of his six years at Belmont, Rahsaan taught a wide array of courses, including private lessons, improvisation, classical and commercial ensembles, and performance seminars. In 2013, he was hired by Tennessee State University to teach private saxophone lessons. While focusing his energies towards musical performance and composition, as well as the management of his record label, Jazz Music City, Rahsaan remains a sought-after private instructor and clinician at the collegiate and professional level. He has presented master classes for students at numerous educational institutions, including Michigan State University, Belmont University, Lipscomb University, the Nashville Jazz Workshop, Tennessee State University, the University of Louisville, the University of Memphis, and the University of North Carolina.

Rahsaan is a Yamaha Performing Artist and proudly endorses Yamaha saxophones. He is also quite active in the greater jazz community of Music City, serving as the Vice-President of the Tennessee Jazz and Blues Society and a board member of the Nashville Jazz Workshop, as well as volunteering for Fisk University’s radio station, WFSK, as host of the radio-show “Generations In Jazz”.

Nathan Warner is one of the world’s most versatile living trumpeters. From screaming lead to tender chamber music to powerful orchestral playing to sensitive jazz improvisations, his strength of tone and musical sensitivity have led his adventure to many distant reaches of the musical universe.

Warner was raised in South Bend, Indiana and began his trumpet studies at the age of ten. He attended the prestigious Interlochen Arts Camp, where, in his second summer, he was the winner of the coveted Governor’s Scholarship. Mr. Warner completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Studies on full scholarship at the Indiana School of Music, where he studied with Dominic Spera, John Rommel, David Baker, Edmund Cord and William Adam. He completed his Master’s Degree in Classical Trumpet Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, under the tutelage of Vincent Penzarella of the New York Philharmonic. Warner earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University where he studied with Kevin Cobb of the American Brass Quintet. Mr. Warner has performed with Lady Antebellum, Peter Cetera, Doc Severinsen, Clay Aiken, Lauren Daigle, Alejandro Sanz, Slide Hampton, Jon Faddis, Lou Marini, Patti LuPone, The Four Tops, Kurt Masur, The Temptations, Frederick Fennell, Olivia Newton-John, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Allen Vizzutti, Butch Miles, Kirk Whalum, and Chris Vadala among others. For fifteen years, he resided in Manhattan, where he was in demand as a classical, orchestral, commercial, big band and jazz performer. He has performed on multiple Broadway shows, including Gypsy, Spider-Man, and Aladdin. Two presidents have attended performances of his.

Also an in-demand educator, he is a champion of music education for inner city youth. Mr. Warner was the music teacher at St. Mark the Evangelist School in Harlem and has worked with the Midori and Friends Foundation. In addition, he has worked for the New York Pops Orchestra Outreach Program and the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival and Institute. Warner is a founding member of the Sugartone Brass Band, one of the most innovative and forward-reaching ensembles of its kind. He also founded the San Marco Brass Quintet which was the resident brass group for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the world’s largest gothic cathedral, from 2009-2012. In 2010, he was a soloist with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Alexandra Pakhmutova’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, reprising the same piece with the Southern Adventist University orchestra in 2016. Warner has been the trumpet player and horn arranger for the hit group, ESCORT, since its inception in 2009; this group has been featured several times in Rolling Stone Magazine. He has served on the faculties of the New York Summer Music Festival, the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division and the City College of New York. He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Music at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. He is married to internationally-renowned personal trainer Hannah Davis and is the proud puppy-papa to a gorgeous Whipador named Stella.

Rebecca Kleinmann began synthesizing her diverse musical interests as a flutist and vocalist at Indiana University, where she began her studies as a Classical Flute (performance) major and historically graduated as the first Jazz Flute major in the history of the school’s Jazz Studies program, thanks to the support of her beloved mentor, the late David Baker. She has performed world wide from Brazil to Australia with her own projects and as a supporting musician.  She performed major festivals in California including the San Jose Jazz Festival,  SF Jazz, and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. She has studied vocal performance with Fabiana Cozza and Jennifer Barnes. Rebecca often utilizes her fluencies in Portuguese and Spanish.  She hosted a weekly concert series at Bissap Baobab (in San Francisco) for four years, titled “Brazil and Beyond,” where performances featured music from Brazil to Ghana, the Balkans and beyond. Seeking to inform her sound with the benefit of rich musical surroundings. Rebecca has traveled annually to Brazil, as well as to Ghana, Spain, Ireland, Argentina, and Australia. Pianist Benny Green made special note of her unique pursuit of artistic growth, explaining that “Rebecca is masterful and selfless in her ability and inclination of melding her sound with her environment.”  In the words of Latin Grammy Nominated pianist and composer, Jovino Santos Neto, “Rebecca plays flute with the passion of a flamenco dancer.”   In early 2022 Rebecca moved from Oakland to Durham, North Carolina and immediately began planting seeds to continue her musical career on the East Coast.  In November, she performed her “Durham Debut” concert to a sold-out audience at The Sharp 9 Jazz Gallery, featuring drummer Sylvia Cuenca, bassist Essiet Essiet on bass, percussionist Aaron Sanchez Guerra, pianist Dr. Stephen Anderson, and saxophonist Rahsaan Barber.

The current Rebecca Kleinmann Sextet includes long-term partnerships from California/ New York and newly formed connections with great local musicians. Dr. Stephen Anderson is head of the Jazz Department at UNC Chapel Hill and has immersed himself deeply in the music of the Dominican Republic. His ensemble,  The Dominican Jazz Project,  is internationally acclaimed. Vibraphonist, composer and producer Dan Neville was the winner of the Jazz Search West competition in 2017 and has since produced his own albums, immersed himself in the music of Columbia, and produced the new album of emerging vocalist Xiomara Torres. Essiet Essiet has long established himself as one of New York’s premier bassists and has played with the greats of Jazz. Sylvia Cuenca is also a first call drummer on both coasts and around the world. Rahsaan Barber is a highly acclaimed saxophonist, composer and educator now completing his third year as Professor of Jazz Studies and Saxophone at UNC-Chapel Hill.  This ensemble features an amazing depth of musical knowledge, and couples that depth with a great musical chemistry existing between its members.

In addition, Rebecca has joined Também, a dynamic quartet performing original music and Brazilian Popular Music. She has also co-founded a Brazilian Choro group “Noites Carolinas” which began to perform regularly in 2023. She continues to keep musical relationships alive in California including her connection with Forró bands and her own Venezuelan music project with virtuoso  cuatro player and percussionist Jacqueline Rago and guitarist Carlos Caminos.

GREGG GELB is a recipient of a Jazz Composers Award from the North Carolina Arts Council and four Regional Artist grants from the Fayetteville/Cumberland County Arts Council.  In addition to leading his Jazz Quartet, 8-piece Swing Band, BIG BAND, Latin Jazz Band and other small groups, he is founder and director of the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Society, and co-founder and player with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra. He is director of the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble and he teaches Introduction to Jazz online for Central Carolina Community College. He has been an Interim Assistant Professor of Jazz at Francis Marion University, UNC Greensboro, NC State and UNC Chapel Hill and he was a Visiting Artist in the North Carolina Community Colleges. He has taught music in universities and public schools throughout North Carolina including his current adjunct professor position as Woodwinds, Jazz and Classical Music Appreciation Instructor at Fayetteville State University and Jazz and Classical Music Appreciation Instructor Jazz at Central Carolina Community College. He has a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Berklee College of Music, a Master of Music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and a DMA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

JERALD SHYNETT, trombonist, composer, and educator is a native of Tampa, Florida, currently residing in Wilmington, NC.  Jerald is an Associate Professor of Trombone and the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he teaches trombone, improvisation, jazz theory, jazz arranging, jazz history, and directs the UNCW Jazz Big Band and Vocal Jazz Ensemble.  He is an active performer and clinician throughout North Carolina, performing with the Grammy-nominated Jazz Surge, and the John Brown Orchestra based in Durham, NC.

Before coming to UNCW in 1998, Jerald maintained an active career as a freelance trombonist, composer and arranger in Florida.  He has performed with such notable artists as Chick Corea, Slide Hampton, Randy Brecker, Conrad Herwig , Joe Chambers, Bob Mintzer, Vincent Herring, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, The O’Jays, Ray Charles, LizaMinelli, and Wayne Newton, as well asthe North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra.  Jerald’s compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the United States and Germany, most recently with the German Big Bandits, the John Brown Orchestra, the University of North Texas, University of South Florida, University of Miami and Northwestern University. Writing credits extend into television and film with Paramount’s “Domestic Disturbance” and Warner Brother’s television “One Tree Hill.”  Jerald holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Miami (‘96), and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of South Florida (‘94).

JC Martin was born in Fort Liberty, N.C. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies from North Carolina Central University in 2009. There he studied with Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo and many other notable musicians. While completing his undergraduate degree, Martin performed internationally with the awardwinning NCCU Jazz Ensemble directed by Dr. Ira Wiggins. In addition, he was twice awarded the guitar chair in the National HBCU All-Star Jazz Big Band in which he performed nationally and internationally. After graduating, he was awarded a teaching assistantship from his Alma Mater and returned for his Masters degree in Jazz Studies. As a professional, Martin is a versatile guitarist who has toured internationally with many notable artist of varying genres such as Branford Marsalis, Burning Spear, The Hamiltones, Tamela Hairston and others. Martin has also made a name for himself as a first call guitarist for many musicians around the state.

JASON FOUREMAN is in demand as a performer, clinician, and educator. Born in Durham, NC he received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2000. In 2005, he was awarded a teaching assistantship at the University of Louisville where he taught and received his Masters degree in Jazz Studies. Currently, Foureman is on faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington and NC State and has been the bassist for the North Carolina Jazz Repertoire Orchestra (NCJRO) since 2007. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Foureman has performed with Cedar Walton, Eric Alexander, Jim Snidero, Jamey Aebersold, Kenny Werner, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joel Frahm, Slide Hampton, Dave Leibman, John Pizzarelli, Renee Marie, Branford Marsalis, Gary Smyulen, Conrad Herwig, Brian Lynch, Joe Magnerelli as well as many others. He resides in Chapel Hill, NC with his wife, Megan, their two daughters and son.

DAN DAVIS (B.M.- Music Education/Percussion – East Carolina University; M.M.- Jazz Studies/Performance – North Carolina Central University, Summa Cum Laude) Studied drumset with David Via, Keith Copeland, and Thomas Taylor. Dan received the A.J. Fletcher music scholarship to study percussion at East Carolina University. He was the 1987 M.T.N.A.- Wurlitzer competition national winner in percussion and in 1988, won the E.C.U. concerto competition performing Paul Creston’s, Concertino for Marimba (3rd mvt.) with the E.C.U symphony Orchestra. In 1989, Dan received the Farmville Friends scholarship. Dan moved to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area in 1990 and began a long association with many of the finest musicians in the region. He is an active educator and clinician. From 2002-2005, Dan was a band director at the Durham School of the Arts in Durham, N.C., receiving the Claus Nobel educator of distinction award in 2005. Currently, he maintains a full schedule of students and performs in many different styles of music. He is an adjunct professor of Jazz drumset, Jazz history, and directs Jazz combos at UNC-Chapel Hill, East Carolina University, and UNC-Pembroke. As an educator, he has performed with artists Joe Chambers, Claudio Roditi, Conrad Herwig, Eric Alexander, Ben Allison, The North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Gary Smulyan, Lynn Seaton, Jeb Patton, and many others.

KATE MCGARRY – With 6 critically acclaimed CDs and 2 Grammy nominations (2019 and 2009) for Best Jazz Vocal CD Kate McGarry has become recognized as a jazz artist who brings authenticity and vitality to every song regardless of genre. The Wall St. Journal calls her music, “Austere and elegant,” New York Times pronounced it, “astute and sensitive”.  She currently performs in jazz clubs, performing arts centers and festivals throughout the US and abroad. As an educator she has taught at New England Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. Downbeat’s 2016 Critics Poll named McGarry the #1 Rising Star Female Vocalist.  She has been interviewed on All Things Considered, and has performed on Jazz Set w/DeeDee Bridgwater, Piano Jazz w/Marion McPartland, and a host of nationally syndicated radio shows.

Singer Kate McGarry grew up in Hyannis, Mass., one of 10 children in a musical family that spent many nights singing together. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst she earned a degree in Afro-American Music and Jazz. Kate began developing her organic vocal style through early training in jazz performance with Dr Horace Boyer and iconic saxophonist Archie Shepp. Her experiences studying at a meditation ashram and exploring Celtic, Brazilian and Indian music also contributed to her widescreen vision as a vocalist and composer. After years honing her craft in Los Angeles, McGarry moved to New York where her independently produced (by Steven Santoro) debut album, Show Me, was picked up by Palmetto Records. Jazziz Magazine declared, “With this near-flawless album, she has arrived.”

In 2005 McGarry’s Mercy Streets album – which ranged from the Peter Gabriel title track to songs by Björk, Joni Mitchell and Irving Berlin – was called “one of the most important vocal albums of the year” by All About Jazz. Featuring originals alongside tunes by Sting and Bill Evans/Miles Davis, her album The Target was named one of the best jazz vocal albums of 2007 by Downbeat. The Downbeat reviewer called the recording “a milestone of maturity,” adding: “McGarry has the pure untrammeled voice of an ingénue who finds wonder in the simplest of things.” Her 2008 album, If Less Is More, Nothing Is Everything, was nominated for a Grammy Award, with The Wall Street Journal calling it “an exceptionally appealing blend of folk and jazz” for its mix of originals, standards, Brazilian tunes and songs by the likes of Bob Dylan. National Public Radio said: “Kate McGarry is called a jazz vocalist, but she’s hard to pin down. She draws on the music of her youth to inspire her – from the Irish tunes of her family’s roots to musical theater to pop songs.”

JUAN ÁLAMO is an internationally known performer, composer, and educator. Álamo has presented solo recitals at universities and percussion and jazz festivals throughout the United States, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. He has recorded and shared the stage performing in collaboration with renowned artists such as Keiko Abe, Ney Rosauro, Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Dave Samuels, Michael Spiro, Ted Piltzecker and famous conductors such as Sergiu Comissiona and Krzyszt Penderecki. Álamo has also authored two keyboard percussion books: “Milt Jackson: Transcribed Solos of the Master” and “Four Mallet Music for the Modern Marimba Player”. He has also recoded two solo marimba albums: Remembrance (2007) and Marimjazzia (2014). Álamo is an assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill and an artist-clinician for Encore Mallets Inc., Yamaha and Meinl percussion.

ED PAOLANTONIO, pianist, is from New York City but lives now in Durham, NC. In addition to earning a BS in Music Education from SUNY and an MM in performance from UNC-Chapel Hill, he studied 3 1/2 years with world famous jazz pianist, teacher and composer Lennie Tristano. He has been composing, arranging and performing jazz professionally since 1971 and has accompanied many jazz giants including Dizzie Gillespie, Slide Hampton, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Heath, and Emily Remler.

Mr. Paolantonio has been described as an “all consuming musician..(whose) solo struck sparks around the room.”–Owen Cardle (News and Observer, Raleigh, NC) “He’s outstanding,… talented and prolific”, said R.C. Smith (Durham Morning Herald). Joe Vanderford (Spectator, Raleigh, NC) wrote of “Paolantonionio’s sound…(as) full of arpeggios, utilizing every one of the eighty-eights”.  Paolantonio has toured with North Carolina drummer Max Roach. As an artist in the NC Touring Program, he performed with his much acclaimed vocal group, String of Pearls. He toured the Middle East for USIA with vibraphonist, Jon Metzger, and has received North Carolina Jazz Fellowship Awards as well as the Durham Emerging Artist Grant.

An excellent clinician, Paolantonio has served in schools and colleges in and out of state. He was NC Artist in Residence for three years and has taught jazz improvisation and history at U.N.C.-Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina State University and Elon College.  As an accompanist, Paolantonio’s recording credits include 2 cd’s with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra. One consisted of Benny Goodman’s arrangements and one of Duke Ellington’s compositions. His credits also include Scott Sawyer’s CD “In the Stream”; Group Sax’s three recordings, “A New Level”, “All’s Well” and “Prime Time”; Karen Love’s CD “I Believe in Little Things”; and Dan Axelrod’s LP “New Axe” distributed on the Phoenix record label.

ANDY BECHTEL teaches editing and writing for print and digital media. He joined the faculty in 2005.  Bechtel has nearly 12 years of editing experience in newspapers, primarily at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. His other experience includes work as a copy editor and page designer at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C. While teaching at UNC, he worked for a summer at the website of the Los Angeles Times.

Bechtel is a member of the American Copy Editors Society, and he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of ACES. He has also written several articles for the ACES newsletter and website.

Bechtel is the author of two online courses for Poynter Institute’s NewsU: one on the fundamentals of editing and another on alternative story forms. He has also written reviews and articles for publications such as Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Society for News Design Update and the North Carolina Media Law Handbook.