Dr. David Mooney is Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies (Guitar) at the University of North Texas. Prior to his appointment, he served as adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans and was an instructor at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Mooney has recorded seven CDs as a leader, and many others as a sideman. Hope of Home is his latest release, on Sunnyside Records, and features the talents of Brian Blade, Jon Cowherd, John Ellis, and Matt Clohesy, who also played on Mooney’s 2012 Sunnyside release Perrier St. In promotion of these CDs, Mooney has toured the US extensively, as well performed in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Japan, and Myanmar.

He competed in the 2005 Thelonious Monk International Guitar Competition, placing third, and studied at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance from 2007 to 2009, under artistic director Terence Blanchard. The Monk group worked with many jazz legends—including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Ron Carter—and toured Panama and India.

Mooney received his Master’s Degree from the University of New Orleans (his hometown) in 2005. Shortly thereafter (in the wake of Hurricane Katrina), he relocated to New York City, and began performing at clubs such as the 55 Bar, The Bar Next Door, The Blue Note, and Smalls. In 2006 he recorded a duo guitar CD with John Pizzarelli entitled Last Train Home. The year after, he recorded Astoriano, on the Japanese label LateSet Records.

Mooney graduated from UNT in 2001, and appeared on Lab 2001, with the One O’Clock Lab Band.

Mooney has also made the foray into the literary world by self-publishing two novels: his newest offering Annalee, and 2012’s Hometown Heroes.

For more info visit www.davymooney.net

Dr. Mooney's faculty duties will begin in August 2017. His teaching assignment will include private lessons in jazz guitar, classes in jazz improvisation for all instruments, and, in collaboration with other rhythm section faculty, the rhythm section master class.

Scott Tixier is a GRAMMY award-winning French jazz violinist and 2018 Downbeat Critic Poll Winner. He has performed, recorded and toured with jazz legends and music icons such as Stevie Wonder, Kenny Barron, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Ed Sheeran, Cassandra Wilson, Coldplay, Chris Potter, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Natalie Cole, Anthony Braxton, Ariana Grande, and many others. In addition to performing in and out of the jazz world Tixier is known for his work on motion picture scores such as The Lion King, John Wick, Charlie’s Angels and TV shows including The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as well as the previous format with David Letterman, Late Night with Seth Meyers, America's Got Talent and most recently with Netflix for Spike Lee new film in collaboration with composer Terence Blanchard (to be released in 2020).

Tixier studied classical violin at the conservatory in Paris. Following that, he studied improvisation as a self-educated jazz musician. He was based in New York for over a decade where he performed in all the major venues across the United States including Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Blue Note Jazz Club, Apollo Theater, Smalls Jazz Club, The Stone and United States Capitol.

Grammy Award-winning bassist Marcus Miller says that Tixier "made an international name for himself. I heard him in France and was immediately struck by his individuality and his sound. “ Guitarist Pat Metheny says, "[Scott] has found a place for himself within the elite community of New York jazz musicians, no small feat." And Jean-Luc Ponty said, "I have heard Scott's recordings, seen his live performances and I think that he stands above the crowd of current jazz violinists around the world."

In August 2018 Tixier joined the UNT College of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin (Jazz/Popular/Alternative Styles) and Director of Jazz String Lab band. The first jazz studies program in the U.S to offer a degree for jazz strings at a doctoral level.

What the press said about Tixier : One of his generation’s extraordinary talents, Tixier has made a name for himself as a violinist-composer of wide-ranging ambition, individuality and drive — “the future of jazz violin” in the words of Downbeat Magazine and “A remarkable improviser and a cunning jazz composer” in those of NPR. “taking the jazz world by storm” as the All About Jazz Journal put it. While The New York Times declared “Mr. Tixier is a violinist whose sonic palette, like his range of interests, runs open and wide.” Jazz Times said, “Tixier has a remarkably vocal tone, and he employs it with considerable suspense.”

Pianist, composer, and educator Dave Meder is one of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a panoramic musical approach that has earned him slots in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and the American Pianists Awards. His defining aesthetic is a remarkably postmodern sense of stylistic adventure, incorporating what All About Jazz describes as “a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum.”

In his 2019 debut, Passage, Meder established himself as a uniquely versatile and broad-minded artist, traversing his way through an affecting gospel standard, a bold deconstruction of Thelonious Monk, a title track inspired by American minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, a dramatic elegy inspired by Baroque-era operatic harmonies, as well as select pieces featuring generation-defining saxophonists Miguel Zenón and Chris Potter. The Ottawa Citizen counted Passage among its top five 2019 jazz debuts, and All Music Guide included the album in its “Favorite Jazz Albums of 2019,” noting the balance of “post-bop harmonies with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication.”

On his 2021 album, Unamuno Songs and Stories, Meder again leverages these diverse musical influences in a stunning response to recent sociopolitical turmoil in the United States. Using the writings of Spanish Civil War-era philosopher Miguel de Unamuno as a historical analogy, Meder and his trio embark on an intensely emotive set that explores the tensions between democracy and authoritarianism, internationalism and nationalism, and religious faith and non-belief.

His original compositions have garnered various awards and commissions, including the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, the International Songwriting Competition, and the First Music Commission of the New York Youth Symphony. Meder has headlined at a host of prominent performance venues and educational residencies around the world, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz Club, The Kennedy Center, Beijing Normal University’s International Music Festival, and a US State Department sponsored teaching residency in Honduras. He is a recent recipient of the prestigious Fulbright US Scholar Award for Visual and Performing Awards, which brings him to Egypt as a guest artist and lecturer in 2022.

Remarkably, the beginnings of Meder’s jazz education were mostly self-guided. Born, raised and classically trained in Tampa, Florida, he was still a teenager when he began teaching professionally at a local music shop, while also building his own private teaching practice. While ensconced in his classical studies, he was persuaded by friends to help them form an after-school jazz band in their middle school, whose music department lacked a formal jazz program. With oversight from a generous band director, the jazz ensemble became a reality and Meder became enamored of the art form, working at it largely on his own until college.

During his undergraduate studies at Florida State University — from which Meder graduated summa cum laude with degrees in jazz studies, Spanish and political science, along with a certificate in sacred music — tutelage under Marcus Roberts bolstered his strikingly authentic handle on historical jazz piano styles. During his college years, Meder was also fortunate to immerse himself in this lineage firsthand by being selected for two of the most crucial incubators in jazz education, the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at The Kennedy Center, and the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival (led at the time by the late David Baker). Upon his graduation in 2013, Meder won the esteemed Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition, formerly known as the Great American Jazz Piano Competition.

A later move to New York afforded Meder a chance to study with the leading edge of jazz: Fred Hersch, Mark Turner, Ari Hoenig, Dave Douglas, and a full year under the mentorship of the legendary Kenny Barron — while also studying classical piano with Julian Martin as well as advanced counterpoint and harmony with Philip Lasser, a leading disciple of the famous Nadia Boulanger school of composition. He now holds a professorship at the University of North Texas, one of the most renowned jazz studies programs in the world, where he continues the tradition of direct mentorship that has sustained the legacy of jazz to this day.

Meder holds an MM from NYU and an Artist Diploma from Juilliard, where he taught and toured as part of the premier ensemble of the school. Concurrent to his graduate studies, Meder worked for three years as the music director of Fordham Lutheran Church in the Bronx, furthering another creative through-line in his life. “I was raised in the church, and I’ve always played in it too,” Meder says. “In the context of all the other ‘brainy’ stuff I’ve studied in music school, [the church] forced me to make a soulful connection to it—to try and make what I was absorbing more personal and musical.” Indeed, his music conveys a tremendous depth, yet remains eminently soulful, an aspiration not often achieved in modern jazz.

Dave Meder is a YAMAHA Artist.

NICK FINZER... is one of the most dynamic musicians of the millennial generation. An award-winning composer, arranger, producer, and trombonist, Finzer is bringing the joy and power of Jazz to both traditional fans and the most modern 21st century audiences. He’s on a mission to be a passionate voice defining the sound of Jazz in this age while also bringing street cred to the trombone with a bold, tight sound.

Listeners will enjoy the wide emotional range of Finzer’s brilliant original compositions and arrangements on his latest album, No Arrival (Posi-Tone 2018). His supporting musical cast for this album includes reed- man extraordinaire Lucas Pino, guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Dave Baron and drummer Jimmy Macbride. The album finds Finzer taking things forward while simultaneously being drawing back to the music that got him to this point in time, with a mix of influences and a unified concept.

Born into the musical world (Mom Sherry Finzer is an international flutist), Finzer developed a fascination for the music of Duke Ellington and found himself, in high school, performing at the annual Essentially Ellington competition of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It was then that he decided to pursue a life in music himself. His budding talent was recognized by Wycliffe Gordon who began a mentorship by writing four pieces for the young Finzer while he attended the Eastman School of Music. Nick went on to get his masters at Juilliard’s prestigious Jazz program where he was mentored by trombone legend Steve Turre.

In 2011 Nick was the winner of the Eastern Trombone Workshop’s National Jazz Trombone Competition and was a finalist in the 2010 International Trombone Association’s Carl Fontana Jazz Trombone Competition.

Two tracks appearing on Nick’s debut album “Exposition” (Outside in Music) garnered Finzer a pair of accolades: The prestigious American Society of Composers and Performers (ASCAP)’s Herb Alpert Award for young composers (2013 & 2015)

Two of Nick's album-length works, “The Chase” and “Hear & Now” were received with rave reviews, a feature article in Downbeat Magazine, and both peaked at #6 on the JazzWeek Charts. “Hear & Now” is a collection of compositions that serve as a vehicle to express the energy and emotions of the early 21st century human experience. The compositions on “Hear & Now” take the listener on a journey from the frenetic pace of everyday life, through self-reflection and mindfulness, and looking ahead to a bright future.

Famed trombonist and mentor Wycliffe Gordon called Finzer “a new voice [in] the pantheon of upcoming trombone greats in the making” and added “Nick's CD is a glowing example of things to come.”

When away from NYC, Finzer can be found touring the globe not only with his own projects, but as part of Anat Cohen’s Tentet, teaching workshops and masterclasses, and appearing with YouTube sensation Postmodern Jukebox. Finzer has joined the group on television, in viral videos with millions of views, and on tours across North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

Finzer has performed at top jazz clubs, festivals and concert halls with Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Newport Jazz Festival with Anat Cohen, Lucas Pino’s No Net Nonet, Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project, Bob Stewart’s Double Quartet, Frank Wess, Terrell Stafford, Lewis Nash, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Walt Weiskopf, Slide Hampton, Frank Kimbrough, Carl Allen, Steve Turre and many more.

While not performing, Nick can be found on his YouTube channel sharing weekly videos on topics ranging from live performances, to new arrangements, and educational videos. Nick's media company and jazz record label Outside in Music is poised to take the jazz recording industry firmly into the next century. Releasing 15 albums in 2017, and looking to top that number in 2018. Outside in Music produces audio and video content for some of jazz's rising stars from around the globe; as well as connecting brands to the jazz artist's passionate fan-bases.

Nick also has a firm commitment to education and developing the next generation of musicians and music lovers. Finzer serves as the Artistic Director of the Institute for Creative Music; a non-profit dedicated to exploring jazz and creativity for musicians and audiences of all levels. From 2014-2016, Nick served as the Visiting Professor of Jazz Trombone at Florida State University. Nick published his first book in 2013 Get Ahead (A Practical Guide for the Developing Jazz Trombonist) and relaunched that book as an interactive online course in June of 2017.

Starting for applications submitted Fall of 2018, the following are the updated guidelines for submitting an application for the UNT Jazz Trombone Studio:

All Applicants for Undergraduate and Master's Jazz Trombone Degree Programs must prepare the following for the on-campus audition. Students who are unable to visit campus for the audition may submit an audition video. All Undergraduates and Masters Applicants should prepare:

· One (1) Bordogni (Rochut) Etude; Unaccompanied from selected numbers 1-60.

· One selection from the following bebop melodies, at a comfortable tempo for the applicant: Billie's Bounce, Ornithology, Anthropology, Bebop

· One Medium or Medium-Up Swing tune from the American Songbook (i.e. composed by Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, etc. The original version of the tune should have lyrics.)

· One jazz ballad performed at a ballad tempo (Quarter note = 60 or slower)

· One tune with straight eighth-note feel. (i.e. Bossa Nova, Mambo, Jazz-latin, etc.)

• A jazz transcription of your choice (at least 32 bars, not to exceed 64 bars, this can be an excerpt from a solo) by one of the following soloists: JJ Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Slide Hampton, Frank Rosolino, or Carl Fontana. Students may perform this with our without written music, unaccompanied. Please bring copies for the audition panel.

Additional Requirements for Master's applicants:

· Confirmation (Charlie Parker) instead of the Bebop melodies listed above.

· Optional: one original composition

Each jazz selection should include the melody, at least 2 choruses of improvisation, and the melody out. The ballad should not exceed two choruses total.

For video auditions, there should be no other soloists on each recording. Recordings need not be of professional quality, but should clearly demonstrate the player's musical abilities. Play-along tracks are acceptable for the jazz improvisation portions, but live musicians are preferred. If neither are available, a metronome marking half-notes (sounding on beats 1 and 3 or 2 and 4) is acceptable.

Undergraduate applicants must play both a classical and a jazz audition. The requirements for the classical audition are published here on the College of Music website.

Master's applicants are not required to play a classical audition.

Candidates applying for a DMA in Performance, Jazz Studies major field on jazz trombone should prepare video recordings of the following for submission as the pre-screening video:

• One (1) Bordogni (Rochut) Etude; Unaccompanied from selected numbers 1-60.

• Confirmation, at a comfortable tempo for the applicant:

• One Medium or Medium-Up Swing tune from the American Songbook (i.e. composed by Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, etc. The original version of the tune should have lyrics.)

• One jazz ballad performed at a ballad tempo (Quarter note = 60 or slower)

• One tune with straight eighth-note feel. (i.e. Bossa Nova, Mambo, Jazz-latin, etc.)

• Optional: one original composition

Applicants for the DMA will be invited for an on-campus audition based on an evaluation of the pre-screening video.

For the on-campus audition audition, the applicant should provide a repertoire list of 10 selections covering a broad range of styles, tempos, and historical jazz periods (i.e. bebop, hard bop, modal, modern, etc). Applicants should bring sight-readable lead sheets for the rhythm section for any and all compositions. In addition, DMA applicants should bring at least one original composition, with lead sheets for the panel and rhythm section. The audition will also include an interview that will address your career plans, research interests, and preferred teaching assignment(s) and how you would approach them.