JAZZ FESTIVAL
Judges

Bruce Dalby is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. For 27 years as a full time tenure-track faculty member at UNM he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, improvisation, jazz band, aural skills, and conducting. From 1989 to 1995 he led the UNM jazz program, including directorship of Jazz Band 1. Since his retirement from UNM in 2016 he has continued in the status of working retiree, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in aural skills and jazz combo.

Dr. Dalby has ten years experience as a band director in the public schools of Idaho and New Mexico, including five years (1982-87) as band director at Manzano High School in Albuquerque. Honors earned by Manzano groups under his leadership include:

• Honor Band, NMMEA 1985 All-State Convention

• Honor Jazz Band, 1985 Mountain States Music Festival (Arizona State University)

• Grand Champion, 1985 Zia Marching Band Fiesta

Dr. Dalby received his undergraduate education from Utah State University and did his graduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research and teaching interests include Music Learning Theory, improvisation, intonation and rhythm training, and applications of technology in music teaching and learning.

His scholarly and creative activities have included authorship of software programs for musicianship development, including “legacy” programs Audiation Assistant and Tune Assistant, both published by GIA Publications, and Tonal Assistant, currently available at https://www.thehearandknow.com.  

Dr. Dalby’s interest and involvement in music education in New Mexico has continued into his retirement years. He served as President of the New Mexico Jazz Educators from 2017 to its dissolution in 2018, and was instrumental in the 2018 establishment of the NMMEA Jazz section, which he served as Vice-President from 2018 to 2021.

As an active freelance trumpet player in the Albuquerque area Dr. Dalby has performed regularly with various classical, jazz, and salsa organizations, and is a 43-year founding member of the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra.

Mr. Sanks retired in 2013 after 29 years of teaching and then taught 5th grade beginning band part time for 8 years. He has also been on staff with the Eldorado Golden Eagle Marching band for the past 13 years. He is married to Chris, they have 4 children, 5 grandkids, and 4 dogs.

Mr. Sanks was the music director of the Albuquerque Concert Band for 25 years, director of the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra for 21 years, and director of the Albuquerque/UNM Jazz Festival for 30 years.

Mr. Sanks was the KOAT Teacher of the year in 1993 & 2002, the National Federation lnterscholastic Music Association Teacher of the Year in 1999 &2004, the New Mexico Music Educator Association Music Educator of the Year in 2OO4, and the New Mexico Jazz Workshop Hall of Fame in 2011, He was inducted into the New Mexico Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2013 and Emeritus Teacher of the Year in 2022.

Vern Sielert is Professor of Trumpet and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Idaho. He also serves as the artistic advisor for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. From 2001-2006 he was Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Washington, and he has also served on the faculties of Baylor University, Illinois State University and Millikin University. Sielert has also directed jazz ensembles at Normal Community West High School in Normal, Illinois. He holds BM degrees in jazz studies and music education, and a MM degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas, and a DMA in trumpet performance from the University of Illinois.

Sielert has been a student of Jack Adams, Keith Johnson, Don Jacoby, Michael Ewald, and Ray Sasaki. He has performed with artists such as Natalie Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Freddie Hubbard, Ronnie Milsap, The O’Jays, Bobby Shew, Michael Feinstein, Gerald Wilson, Claudio Roditi and Dee Daniels and in such diverse settings as the Bob Curnow Big Band, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, the Lionel Hampton Big Band, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Walt Disney World. Vern was also a member of the University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band, which has recorded several of his compositions and arrangements.

Vern maintains an active performing schedule with groups such as the Jim Knapp Orchestra, Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, Palouse Jazz Project, Idaho Brass Quintet, and the Bob Curnow Big Band. His first CD, From There To Here on Pony Boy records was released in 2007. He is a member of the collaborative group the Unhinged Sextet, whose CD Don’t Blink was named one of the best jazz releases of 2017 by critic Mark Sullivan from the website All About Jazz. He can also be heard performing on recent recordings by Greg Yasinitsky’s YAZZ Band, the Jessie Smith Jazz Orchestra, Convergence, the Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra, Matt Olson, the Bob Curnow Big Band, the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, Sierra Music Publications and Phil Kelly’s Northwest Prevailing Winds.

His compositions and arrangements have been performed by prestigious ensembles including the Count Basie Orchestra, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors and Otto Sauter’s trumpet ensemble, Ten of the Best. His works are regularly heard in high school and university jazz ensembles across the country and have been recorded by professional groups in the US, Canada and Japan.

Vern is also an active educator, clinician and adjudicator, and has worked at schools and jazz festivals throughout the US and Canada, and at conferences of the Idaho Music Educators, Oregon Music Educators, Washington Music Educators, MENC Northwest Division, WIBC, and the International Association for Jazz Education. He has directed all-state jazz bands in Idaho, Montana, Alaska and New Mexico.

His jazz trumpet solo transcriptions have appeared regularly in the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild since 1998. He currently serves a chair of the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, which he hosted at the University of Washington in 2005, co-hosted in 2017 at the University of Idaho.

Christopher Merz, Professor of Music, has served as Director of Jazz Studies and Director of the award-winning UNI Jazz Band One at the University of Northern Iowa since 2002. Under his direction, the band has traveled to South Africa, Cuba, and Thailand, and has recorded 16 CDs and 5 digital albums featuring many original compositions and arrangements by student and faculty writers.

The 2024-2025 recipient of the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, “recognizing his sustained record of excellence across the spectrum of faculty endeavors,” he has also received the School of Music’s John L. Baker Faculty Development award (2016), and the CHFA University Book and Supply Outstanding Teaching award recognizing excellence among tenure-track faculty (2006). He is a Past President of Jazz Educators of Iowa (JEI), and a member of their Hall of Fame (2015), as well as the Community Jazz Center of Des Moines Hall of Fame (2023). During his first year at UNI in 2000, he founded the UNI Combo Camp, an annual event for high school jazz students and music educators which has served well over 1000 students to date. He was awarded a professional development leave for the fall semester of 2025 to arrange the music of drummer Phil Haynes for large jazz ensemble.

His recording credits include Steve McCraven, Darius Brubeck, John Rapson and Jon Snell, as well as his own projects; Counterculture, the Chris Merz/Bob Washut Duo, The X-tet, and Equilateral. His 1997 release with the X-tet, Mystery is My Story, prompted Dave Brubeck to write, “I am very pleased with this wonderful band. Naturally I would admire a group like yours that, to me, is a grand extension of what we were doing...when we were the ‘new thing’”. These days he can be heard with the Iowa Jazz Composers’ Orchestra led by colleague Mike Conrad, the soul jazz sextet Big Fun led by Iowa jazz legend Steve Grismore, and his own current bands, Christopher’s Very Happy. Band and Shorter Stories, which celebrates the music of master composer Wayne Shorter. An accomplished composer/arranger for large jazz ensembles, Merz has received commissions from university and high school big bands throughout the country, and is published through iJazzmusic, UNC Jazz Press and ejazzlines/Walrus. He is also a highly sought after guest soloist, clinician and conductor at university and high school jazz festivals nationwide, and is endorsed by D’Addario and TM Custom tenor saxophones.

Education: M.M. - University of Massachusetts