ANDREW CONNELL, Assistant Professor
B.M., San Jose State University; M.M. & M.A., The University of Michigan; Ph.D, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Andrew Connell is an ethnomusicologist whose primary research is in Brazilian popular instrumental music, focusing on issues of identity and musical globalization. He has recent articles published in Music Cultures of Latin America: Global Effects, Past and Present (UCLA Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology) and Women and Music in America Since 1900 (Greenwood Press) and has given presentations at various national and international conferences including the Society for Ethnomusicology and the International Council of Traditional Music. His current scholarly activities include completing a book on Brazilian jazz.
As a performer, Dr. Connell plays saxophone and clarinet in ensembles ranging from jazz to classical chamber music to Brazilian chorinho. He studied jazz improvisation and arranging with Ray Brown, clarinet with Rosario Mazzeo, Janet Averett, and Fred Ormand, and saxophone with Don Sinta. He has played with the Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Toledo (Ohio) Symphonies, and has appeared at the Monterey, Montreux–Detroit, and San Francisco jazz festivals, and the Spoleto Festival USA. In addition, Dr. Connell has performed with a wide range artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Dave Leibman, Lou Rawls, Mike Marshall, and Hermeto Pascoal, and has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Intrada, Adventure Music, Earthbeat! Traveler, and Acoustic Levitation labels. At James Madison University, Dr. Connell teaches courses in American music, the history of jazz, world music, and coaches small jazz ensembles.
Email: connelam@jmu.edu
Office: 540.568.3850
CHARLES DOTAS, Associate Professor of Music Education and Jazz; Director JMU Jazz Ensemble
B.M., University of Wisconsin at Green Bay; M.M., Eastman School of Music; D.A., University of Northern Colorado. He comes to JMU from Montreal, Quebec, where he was professor of jazz studies at McGill University. He also taught in the Wisconsin public schools for six years. He studied composition and jazz arranging with Ray Wright, Manny Albam, Bill Dobbins, Fred Sturm and Samuel Adler. His music has been performed in Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and throughout the United States by artists such as Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Phil Woods and Steve Kuhn. His music is published through UNC Jazz Press and Margun Music.
Email: dotascj@jmu.edu
Office: 540.568.6180
MARLON FOSTER, Part Time Instructor of Percussion
B.M.Ed., M.M., James Madison University. He has conducted and adjudicated workshops involving marching and concert percussion and jazz band rhythm sections throughout Virginia. He has also conducted All-District and many Virginia honor bands at the middle school level. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force Band at Langley Air Force Base under the direction of Lowell E. Graham. He has also performed in the Rockbridge Symphony Orchestra and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra. He continues to perform jazz with many local ensembles. He is currently the director of bands at Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg.
Email: fosterma@jmu.edu
Office: 540.568.6763
Tom McKenzie, trombone, directs the JMU Jazz Band and coaches student jazz combos. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education from JMU. After college, he spent four years in the United States Air Force band, with assignments in Shreveport, Louisiana and Kaiserslautern, Germany, before returning to the Shenandoah Valley.
B.M., University of Massachusetts, Amherst; M.M., Eastman School of Music; coursework completed towards D.M.A., University of Miami. An innovative saxophonist and composer, David's honors include the prestigious Down Beat award. He has toured and performed with The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Sax Maniacs, Saxology, the Naples Philharmonic (under Erich Kunzel), and the Florida Philharmonic. He has been a featured columnist in Saxophone Journal since 1995. He has additional publications with Cherry Lane/Hal Leonard, Dorn Publications, and Ex Tempore. The critics praised his Open Loop Records debut, Soul of the Elephant, which showcases his unique mastery of multiphonics. He has studied with Lynn Klock, Yusef Lateef, Jeff Holmes, Fred Sturm, and Gary Keller. David has backed up many of the greats, including Bob Brookmeyer, Benny Carter, Dave Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Doc Severinsen, and Kenny Wheeler. An established educator, he was composer-in-residence at Fairport High School (NY) and taught at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Miami. He is a Boosey & Hawkes artist and plays Keilwerth saxophones, and endorses Applied Microphone Technology microphones.