Jerry Tolson has been a member of the music faculty at the University ofLouisville since 1993. With appointments in jazz studies and music education he directs instrumentaland vocal jazz ensembles and teaches jazz pedagogy classes. A graduate of Drake University and theUniversity of North Texas, Tolson is active as a clinician, adjudicator, guest conductor, and jazz campinstructor throughout the country.

He has been active as an organizer, administrator, and presenterof jazz through festivals and educational activities and is cofounder of a series of teacher traininginstitutes sponsored by the International Association for Jazz Education.

As a composer/arranger, Tolson writes for both large and small instrumental ensembles as well as vocal jazz ensembles. Hisvocal jazz works are published by UNC Jazz Press, and he is a writer and consultant for the Warner Bros. “Jazz Expressions” music curriculum.

As a performer on woodwinds and keyboards of his own groups, he has also worked with such popular artists as the Temptations, Four Tops, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Manhattan Transfer, and with jazz artists Pete Christlieb, Phil Wilson, James Moody, Benny Golson, and Marvin Stamm.

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