Past Guest Artists and Clinicians
2026 Jazz Festival Guest Artist: Victor Garcia
We were thrilled to welcome this year's guest artist, trumpeter Victor Garcia! Victor Garcia was introduced to music via the piano at age 4. At age 8, he began learning the guitar and singing with his father and brother in a Latin American-style trio, a setting in which he gained a deep sense of harmony. He began teaching himself to play the trumpet in high school, influenced by recordings of jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker, and Freddie Hubbard, and by the middle of his senior year, he enrolled in the Merit School of Music, studying under Michael McLaughlin. He also gained some performance experience in the Horner Park Jazz Band, comprised almost entirely of senior citizens, and in the Gallery 37 Latin Big Band, funded by the City of Chicago.
By the time he left for college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Victor had begun playing with various Latin bands, including that of Ricky Luis (singer of N’Klabe of Universal Records), Angel Melendez & the 911 Mambo Orchestra, Johnny Rodriguez’s Latin Inspiration, and Papo Santiago & Infraverde. While at UIUC, Garcia studied with classical luminaries Ron Romm of the Canadian Brass, and the late, great Dr. Michael Ewald, as well as with jazz saxophone master Ron Bridgewater.
Victor subsequently transferred to Northern Illinois University due to an increasingly busy schedule in Chicago. There he studied with Dr. Mark Ponzo and jazz trumpet master Art Davis. Playing in the NIU Jazz Ensemble under Prof. Ron Carter, Victor had the opportunity to play with jazz greats Dennis Mackrel, Rufus Reid, Hammiett Bluiett, and Steve Turre. During this time, he met pianist Darwin Noguera, and before long, they founded the band now known as the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble (CALJE). The band features original works as well as arranged cover material and consists of world-class musicians, such as Tito Carrillo, Ernie Adams, Steve Eisen, and Greg Ward. CALJE has performed at jazz festivals such as the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Isthmus Jazz Festival, and the Made in Chicago Jazz Series, the latter of which included special guests Howard Levy, Brian Lynch, Paoli Mejias, and Steve Turre.
Garcia continues to freelance in Chicago and beyond. Notable performances including the Montreal Salsa Festival with Angel Melendez, a live DVD recording at the Grand Ballroom in Navy Pier with Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, the Blues & Brews Fest in Telluride, CO, with Lubriphonic, winning the Grand Prize at Buddy Guy’s Legends for the Union League Club Jazz Improvisation Competition (2009), and playing aboard Oprah Winfrey’s Trip Of A Lifetime Mediterranean Cruise with Walt Cunningham. He also has had the opportunity to play with countless salsa artists, some of whom include Michael Stuart, Frankie Negron, Cano Estremera, Marvin Santiago, Tony Vega, Alex D'Castro, Tito De Gracia, La India, Bobby Valentin, Ismael Miranda, Larry Harlow, Victor Manuelle, Jerry Rivera, and Jimmy Bosch. He has also performed with jazz legends including Bill Holman, Roger Ingram, Jon Faddis, Ignacio Berroa, Arturo Sandoval, Luis Bonilla, and Doc Severinsen, with R&B celebrities Aretha Franklin, BeBe Winans, and the Temptations, and with rock band Spoon. He has recorded on dozens of albums, two of which earned Grammy nominations in 2005 and 2008 (Angel Melendez & the 911 Mambo Orchestra and Sones de Mexico), and one of which was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2007 (Sones de Mexico). He maintains a busy teaching schedule at Loyola University Chicago, the Chicago Jesuit Academy, and the Music Institute of Chicago, as well as through his own private studio.
2026 Clinician: Joe Manis
Originally from Dexter, Oregon, SteepleChase recording artist Joe Manis was the recipient of a 2013 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Recent Joe Manis Trio appearances include Fat Cat NYC, the Shedd Institute’s jazz series, Jimmy Mak's, Tula's, the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, and the Montavilla Jazz Festival. Manis has performed on NPR's Jazz Night in America, hosted by Christian McBride.
Manis has toured Europe as a duo and in a trio with David Friesen, where they recorded Structures, a live album. He also appears on Risky Notion (Four stars & Best Albums of 2015, DownBeat Magazine) on Origin Records with George Colligan's Theoretical Planets. Manis has played with Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, including a performance at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, and appears on their album Rise Up! on Real World Records. He has also performed with the George Colligan Quartet, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, the Ken Schaphorst Big Band, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Johnny Mathis, the Temptations, comedian Bob Newhart, Wayne Newton, the Oregon Symphony with Gladys Knight, the Portland Opera, the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Sunriver Music Festival Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony, and the Eugene Opera.
Manis has presented jazz masterclasses across the country, including at University of Nevada, Reno, Whitman College, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Oregon, Ferris State University, Central Washington University, Willamette University, Portland State University, Southern Oregon University, Oregon State University, Western Oregon University, Pacific University, Lower Columbia College and Mesa, Glendale, Portland, Spokane Falls, Mt. Hood, Clackamas and Lane Community Colleges. He received a Master of Music in Jazz Studies-Performance with Academic Honor from the New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon. Additional studies were at the Eastman School of Music. He is a current faculty member at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College and a former music faculty member at Portland State University and Umpqua Community College. His article "Rhythmic Analysis: Jeff 'Tain' Watts - 'Housed From Edward'" was published in the March 2012 edition of JAZZed Magazine.
2026 Clinician: Jessika Smith
Jessika Smith is an award-winning jazz composer, saxophonist, and music educator. She teaches at Parkrose Middle School and High School in Northeast Portland, and she directs the Jessika Smith Big Band. She plays frequently with jazz groups throughout Oregon and Washington, including Torrey Newhart’s Obsidian Animals, the Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble, Okzat-Ozkat and the Frank Irwin Sextet. Jessika has worked with numerous young jazz groups in the Northwest, and frequently adjudicates jazz festivals and competitions along the west coast. She is the Jazz area chair for the Oregon Music Educators Association. Jessika studied Jazz Composition and Arranging with Steve Owen at the University of Oregon, and has played and recorded professionally with many groups, including the Bob Curnow Big Band, Spokane Jazz Orchestra, the Columbia Basin Jazz Orchestra, the Emerald City Jazz Kings, and the Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble. Her first album with PJCE records, “Tricks of Light”, features "Lights", which was the 2013 winner of the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra Composition Contest, and "Cyan Thread", which won the 2015 NBA Young Jazz Composer Contest. Jessika is proud to be a featured composer with Brava Jazz Publishing. She has written commissions for PJCE, Seattle JazzEd, Seattle Saxophone Institute, the Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association, and the Reno Jazz Festival. Her compositions have been played all over the world, including by the UNT 1 O’Clock and 7 O’Clock Lab Bands, Sapphire Jazz Orchestra, the University of Missouri, Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra, Ole Miss, the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, University of Nevada Reno, and many Northwest school jazz bands.
2025 Jazz Festival Guest Artist: Christopher McBride
We were thrilled to welcome saxophonist Christopher McBride as the guest artist for the 2025 University of Portland Jazz Festival.
Saxophonist Christopher McBride is based in New York City. His work includes education, arranging and composition in addition to performance. He has been slowly but steadily turning heads with his ubiquitous work as an invaluable sideman since the mid-2000’s. Now Christopher is gaining respect amongst fans, critics, and his peers as one of the most versatile saxophonists in the world. His 2012 debut album Quatuor de Force certainly establishes his ability to front a group and write his own soulful, melodically indelible tunes. Applauded for his ability to play in all musical situations, McBride has the ability to unleash a fiery attack and serrated tone, but on his first album he explores a more measured, mellow sound heavily influenced by contemporary R&B—with a strong shot of Cannonball Adderley’s post-bop sensuality—but his improvising is very rigorous and cogent. As a composer, McBride was selected as the 2022 Make Jazz Fellowship artist at The 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California.
Born in Chicago, and starting his professional career there in 2007, Christopher made the move to NYC in 2013. His group, The Whole Proof, has played venues all over New York. Christopher ran his ‘Singer Meets Saxophonist’ series at the famed Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem from 2017-2019. The musicians he has performed with over the years span many genres, sharing the stage with Billy Preston, Percy Gray, Roy Hargrove, Pete Rock, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco, Guy Sebastian, Solange, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Hudson, Alice Smith, Brandon Flowers, Lea DeLaria, 88 Keys, Milton Mustafa, Winard Harper, and Marquis Hill’s Blacktet.
As a recording artist, McBride’s February 2023 release Ramon made the Top 25 on the JazzWeek Charts and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks as well as making the JazzWeek Top 100 albums for 2023. The sophomore release has received critical acclaim. All About Jazz called the album “a sonic marvel that showcases a robust grasp of bebop and contemporary jazz idioms.” As a performing artist he has received a Grammy certificate for his work as a collaborator/soloist on Steven Feifke and Bijon Watson’s 2022 album Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.
As an educator, McBride has served as the Director of Education for the Second Line Arts Collective, a non-for-profit organization based out of New Orleans. His primary duties included writing curriculum for the Little Stompers division and teacher development. He also teaches for Jazz at Lincoln Center regularly, as well as touring nationally with various educational programs.
As a journalist and consultant, McBride has worked with Forbes Ignite, the innovation coalition of Forbes.
2025 Clinician: Susie Jones
Susie Jones is a jazz educator, retired from Mt. Hood Community College. Under her direction, the MHCC Jazz Band performed at the IAJE convention in New York in 2007, received an IAJE award for "top ten campus CDs", and has toured Taiwan six times on government sponsored tours. Susie served as the Jazz Chair for the Oregon Music Educators Association for 8 years, is past president of the Oregon Unit of International Association for Jazz Education, and is president of the Board of Directors for the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, producing that festival in 2008, 2009, 2013, and 2014. Susie directed the Community College All-Star Band at the IAJE convention in Toronto in 2008, and contributed a chapter in the book "Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz", GIA Publications. Prior to her appointment at Mt. Hood
Community College, she taught for 9 years in the North Clackamas School District and 8 years in the David Douglas School District. Susie also served on the Board of Directors at Mt. Hood Community College and Multnomah Education Service District.
2025 Clinician: Cassio Vianna
Cassio Vianna is a pianist, arranger, producer, music educator, and an award-winning composer whose work reflects a broad range of musical and cultural influences. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr. Vianna is currently the Director of Jazz Studies, Associate Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA.
After engaging in many recording and performing projects in the vibrant Rio de Janeiro music scene, Dr. Vianna moved to the U.S. in 2009 to further his music studies and career. Dr. Vianna holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Uni-Rio), a Master of Music degree from Western Oregon University, and a Doctor of Arts degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado, where he studied with David Caffey.
As a very active composer, Dr. Vianna has been commissioned to write pieces in a wide variety of styles, from solo piano to classical chamber pieces, from popular songs to large jazz ensemble charts. His compositions have received awards from the National Band Association, Ithaca College Jazz Composition Competition, Jazz Education Network, and the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC). His jazz big band charts have been performed by artists such as Eric Marienthal, Chris Potter, Ernie Watts, Martha Reeves (Martha & the Vandellas), and the United States Army Field Band (Jazz Ambassadors), among others. His recent albums include Letters to Grace: A Song Cycle (Cassio Vianna, 2011), Infância (Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra, 2017), and Vida (Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra, 2025). Vida features special guest Eric Marienthal and a stellar group of musicians from the Pacific Northwest.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Vianna has been featured as an adjudicator, performer, and clinician at jazz festivals and conferences in Latin America and across the U.S. In 2015, he traveled to China to perform and to teach a two-week program at the Guangxi Arts Institute (Nanning Province). He has presented clinics and lectures at several Jazz Education Network Annual Conferences, at the Midwest Clinic, International Composers' Symposium, NAfME Northwest Conference, and at the Washington Music Educators Association Conference.
2024 Guest Artist: Shirazette Tinnin
The guest artist for the 2024 UP Jazz Festival was drummer/percussionist Shirazette Tinnin.
Shirazette Tinnin is a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator, music director, published author, and health coach. She serves as a full-time Associate Professor of Percussion at the Berklee College of Music, where she directs the Dee Dee Bridgewater Ensemble and teaches private lessons. Tinnin, a Latin Grammy Nominee (2022), Make Jazz Fellow, and Fulbright recipient, is also the American drummer with Bridgewater and loves being a member of her band.
Additionally, Tinnin performs and freelances with other artists that include Deborah Cox, Lea Delaria (Orange Is the New Black), Endea Owens, Yuri Juárez’s Afro-Peruano, Afrikkanitha, Alan Harris, Alicia Olatuja, Nicole Mitchell, Tia Fuller, Mimi Jones, Orange Coffee, Alicia Keys, and Black Girls Rock (BET), and she leads her own projects The Sonic WallPaper Band and her jazz trio for political injustices, Moods of Her.
Tinnin has served as Music Coordinator for Urban Bush Women (2017-2023), founded by Jawole Zollar, and was Music Director for Alan Harris’s “Cross that River,” curating the final festival presentation at Little Island (summer 2021), called “Jazz Women.” She also has television credit for the first season of The Meredith Viera Show on NBC.
Tinnin has a background in marching percussion, classical percussion, world percussion, and her primary instrument, drum set. She studied at Appalachian State University for her undergraduate degree and is currently on their advisory board. She earned a master’s degree in music is from Northern Illinois University in Jazz Pedagogy under the direction of saxophonist Ron Carter. She also has a diverse background in fitness, with certifications in TRX, DNA Fitness Programming, Corrective Exercise, and Exercise Therapy from ISSA and NASM.
Her latest album, The Cards that Life Can Deal, which was featured on JAZZIZ magazine’s “Inside Track,” was released in 2021 and is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify. She plans to release new music featuring bassist Christian McBride in 2024.
2024 Clinician: Dan Davey
Dan Davey is the Director of Jazz Studies and tenured Music Instructor at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon where he directs the premiere jazz ensemble and teaches core music courses. He is the Festival Director for the historic Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and he is on the assessment faculty for the American Band College of Central Washington University. Dan also serves on the board of the Oregon Music Educators Association as the State Jazz Championship Chair. Dan received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the Berklee College of Music and his Master of Music from Sam Houston State University. He taught high school for eight years in Massachusetts before moving into higher education at Stonehill College and now at MHCC.
Dan works as a pianist, organist, and trumpet player and has performed at several notable venues around the country. He has played with the Southcoast Jazz Orchestra, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, and Herb Reed and the Platters. In addition, Dan has performed and collaborated with several leaders in the industry, including Doc Severinsen, Bobby Shew, Allen Vizzutti, Terell Stafford, John Riley, Tiger Okoshi, Dominick Farinacci, Earl MacDonald, Marcus Printup, and the late Chris Vadala. Above all, his greatest passion is spending time with his wife and their two sons!
2024 Clinician: Jessika Smith
Jessika Smith is an award-winning jazz composer, saxophonist, and music educator. She teaches at Parkrose Middle School and High School in Portland, and she directs the Jessika Smith Big Band. She plays frequently with jazz groups throughout Oregon and Washington currently including Torrey Newhart’s Obsidian Animals, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and the Frank Irwin Sextet. Jessika has worked with numerous young jazz groups in the Northwest, presents regularly at music education conferences, and frequently adjudicates jazz festivals and competitions along the West Coast. She is the newly elected jazz area chair for the Oregon Music Educators Association.
2023 Guest Artist: Liam Teague
The guest artist for the 2023 UP Jazz Festival was steelpan virtuoso Liam Teague!
Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where he also leads the renowned NIU Steelband. Teague is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022) and a Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018).
Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, his commitment to demonstrating the great musical possibilities of the steelpan has taken him to throughout the world, and he has received many awards from his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver) and the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence.
Teague has won several notable competitions such as the Trinidad and Tobago National Steelband Festival Solo Championship and the Saint Louis Symphony Volunteers Association Young Artist Competition. He has also performed with many diverse ensembles which include National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, University of Wisconsin-Madison Marching Band, Nutrien Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra.
Teague has appeared in concert with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and has regularly collaborated with NIU colleagues Robert Chappell(multi-instrumentalist) and Faye Seeman(harp) with whom he co-founded the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic.
He has also presented and performed at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (PASIC) and educational institutions across the globe. Liam Teague has served as an adjudicator for many events including the International Pan Ramajay Competition and Virginia Arts Festival- PANorama Caribbean Music Festival.
Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with MaumauMusic, PanPress, RamajayMusic, Wendeln Music Works, and he has commissioned outstanding composers to write for the steelpan, including Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas.
He is steelband director at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wisconsin, and has also taught and performed at the California State University Summer Arts Camp and at the Interlochen Academy for the Performing Arts.
Teague is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest publisher of print music.
Liam Teague has created arrangements for Panorama, the most celebrated steelband competition in the world, for Nutrien Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, Harvard Harps Steel Orchestra, Starlift Steel orchestra, and Skiffle Steel Orchestra. He has many recordings to his credit, including Hands Like Lightning, For Lack of Better Words, Panoramic: Rhythm Through an Unobstructed View and Open Window.
2023 Clinician: Briana Harris
Briana Harris is a musician, artist manager, and entrepreneur with a focus on empowering creatives to do their best work. A versatile creator and collaborator, Bri has credits as a saxophonist, singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, and composer. Her debut album as a solo artist, When We’re Found, contains 10 original songs that explore personal stories and venture through an eclectic set of style and genre influences.
A saxophonist by trade, Briana is a performing member, manager, and co-owner of The Burroughs, a Colorado-based original funk and soul band. As a performer, recording artist and composer, Briana’s credits include performances with The O'Jays, Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra, and Annie Booth; recordings with the David Caffey Jazz Orchestra, the Spencer Zweifel Quintet, Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Art Deco; and original music composed for Octave Records and KUNC radio's Colorado Edition program.
Briana runs Harris Artist Management, a full-service management roster serving public visual artists. She is an in-demand clinician and educator with expertise in jazz performance and improvisation, music business, and arts administration. Briana is a voting member of the Recording Academy.
2023 Clinician: Kate Skinner
Jazz pianist and vocalist Kate Skinner maintains an active performing, composing, and teaching career in the western United States. A native of Ogden, Utah, Skinner pulls influences from the bluegrass and classical roots of her childhood into both her songwriting and performing as a jazz musician. In her teenage and college years, Kate delved into R&B, funk, and hip hop, genres that also continually find their way into her musical explorations helping to create her own unique voice. Part of this unique voice is an obsession with alternative keyboard instruments and a study of the great keyboardists of jazz, rock, and funk.
As a pianist, Skinner is in demand in a variety of performance styles and has performed with the Downbeat-award-winning jazz band from the University of Northern Colorado, Jazz Lab Band I, among many other established large and small jazz ensembles. Her work as a vocalist has seen much success among a wide audience of listeners across genres. Kate’s compositions and playing have won multiple awards, including a Downbeat award for Outstanding Vocal Performance and a Jazz Education Network award for composition. Kate believes that the pursuit of honest and creative projects is the lifeblood of any artist and she strives to continually push herself and widen her scope to new influences and excitements.
Skinner is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, where she directs Jazz Band II and teaches multiple courses in jazz studies. She holds M.M. and D.A. degrees in Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado.
2022 Guest Artist: Dr. Caroline Davis
The 2022 Jazz Festival's guest artist was Brooklyn-based saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis, winner of the 2018 Downbeat Critic’s Poll “Rising Star” category for alto saxophone. She presented concerts with the UP Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday, April 13 at 6:00pm and Thursday, April 14 at 11:15am. She also gave master classes on the 13th at 12:30 pm and the 14th at 10:00am and performed with the UP Jazz Faculty each day of the Festival. More information on Dr. Davis can be found on her website: http://www.carolinedavis.org/.
Adjudicators and clinicians for this year's Festival were Dan Davey, Susie Jones, Joe Manis, and Ryan Meagher.
2019 Guest Artist: Charles McPherson
Legendary saxophonist Charles McPherson presented concerts with the UP Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:00pm and Thursday, April 18 at 11:30am. He also gave master classes on Wednesday, April 17 at 12:30pm and on Thursday, April 18 at 10:15am. Mr. McPherson joined the UP Jazz Festival after recent performances at Lincoln Center (New York) and the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.). More information on Charles McPherson can be found on his website: www.charlesmcpherson.com.
Adjudicators and clinicians for this year's festival were Dan Davey, Susie Jones, Joe Manis, and Cassio Vianna.
