Core Faculty Full Line-up
These are the folks that you'll be working with both days at JazzWire Saxophone & Improvisation Summit. They will be teaching the small combos, electives, and masterclasses.
Jeff Antoniuk
Saxophone/Artistic Director
Saxophonist Jeff Antoniuk is an internationally respected jazz composer and musician whose concerts and recordings are consistently well received by critics. His CD’s, including "The Blind Watchmaker" with The MARS 4-tet and "Brotherhood" and "Here Today" with The Jazz Update have been lauded by jazz critics around the world. They note his exceptional compositions as well as the his peerless technique.
Antoniuk has shared the stage with US masters including Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Jimmy Haslip, Najee and Marcus Miller. He's also worked with Canadian greats PJ Perry, Senator Tommy Banks, big band leader Rob McConnell, pop icon David Foster and trumpet sensation Ingrid Jensen. In 2017, Jeff was the featured soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the world premier of their "Swingin' Nutcracker," a jazz reinvention of the 25 movement Tchaikovsky classic. Antoniuk’s widely popular "Digging Deeper Jazz" You Tube channel is approaching almost 2,000,000 views.
A dedicated teaching artist, Antoniuk has been a featured performer and educator at numerous festivals, including Juneau Jazz & Classics, The Jazz Educator Network (JEN) Annual Convention, the Edmonton International Jazz Festival, the International Saxophone Symposium, MacEwan Summer Jazz, and at The White House. He is the founder and artistic director of Maryland Summer Jazz, and directs two other adult music programs in the USA: Jazz Band Masterclass and the Capital City Voices. In 2018, Antoniuk launched Jazz Wire, the global home for adult amateur and semipro jazz musicians.
Raymond Baril
Saxophone
Raymond Baril is Department Chair and Section Head of Music Performance at MacEwan University. For decades, Raymond has been one of Edmonton’s busiest saxophonists and in demand as a woodwind specialist for pit orchestras in local and touring productions. He was a regular member of the Tommy Banks Big Band for 25 years and has appeared with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions as an orchestra member and soloist, and as a guest conductor.
Mr. Baril has served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Edmonton Winds, as well as Director of the MacEwan University Jazz Ensemble for 37 seasons. Further, for six seasons he served as the musical director of the River City Big Band. Raymond remains a much sought after national clinician and adjudicator as well as a featured guest speaker at music education conferences across the country.
Raymond holds a graduate degree in conducting from Northwestern University, undergraduate degrees in both performance and education from the University of Alberta. In 2018 Raymond was inducted in the Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award from MacEwan University. In the past, he has been the recipient of many awards for his contribution to music and music education from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Alberta Band Association, Edmonton Public Schools District Service Award and from Alberta Learning.
Rosemarie Siever
Saxophone
Rose Marie C has been a mainstay of the Edmonton music scene for many years.
She has performed with: Jeff & Friends, Esquina Latina with Manny V, Five Artists One Love Showcase, Horacio Blanco, Bobby Cameron Band, X-Band Latin Sensation, Retrofitz, St. Bliss, Paula Perro and The Project, Franki Valli, The Pointer Sisters and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Currently, she arranges and performs with Uptown, M*A*R*S, Studio B Saxophone Quartet, and other freelance projects.
You can connect with her at:
website: www.rosemariec.com
instagram: @theerosemariec
facebook: www.facebook.com/theerosemariec
Dan Davis
Saxophone
Dan Davis is a saxophonist and educator from Edmonton AB. He completed his Masters in Jazz Studies at the University of South Florida in 2009. He leads the Way Back Whens, a brand new trad-jazz band set to release their new record “Live at the Yardbird Suite” on April 5th. Dan is also a member of The Brasstactics, Canada’s loudest brass party band. In 2015 Dan’s composition “What Happens Next” received an Edmonton Music Award for Best Jazz Recording.
Dan has been fortunate enough to perform with P.J. Perry, Tommy Banks, Jim Head, Robi Botos, Joel Gray, Juno winners Mike Murley and Kevin Turcotte, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, the Yardbird Suite Jazz Orchestra, the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra and the Glen Miller Orchestra.
Currently, Dan is an instructor at MacEwan University and the MacEwan Conservatory of Music at Alberta College.
Jean-Francois Picard
Saxophone
Jean-Francois Picard started playing music at an early age in a very musical family. After studying at the Conservatory of Quebec, he studied at Cégep de Ste-Foy, then he pursued his degree at Laval University. In 1986 he joined the Canadian Forces as a professional musician, where he held multiple roles including Musical director of RCA Band Jazz Band and as Musical Director of the Air Force Jazz Band in Ottawa.
After retiring from the military in 2015, Jean-Francois continued to increase his knowledge in jazz music and musical arranging. He studied at Berklee College of Music, and holds many extended study diplomas including the Professional Arranger Diploma and Master Certificate in Arranging.
Over the years, JF has studied with incredible players and educators including Pat LaBarbera, Bob Sheppard, Greg Fishman and Eric Alexander. Closer to home, Jean-Francois is very involved in the Edmonton community as musical director of the Gateway Big Band, Capital City Big Band and work with the River City Big Band. As a performer, you will see Jean-Francois with the likes of the Edmonton Symphonic Orchestra, the Edmonton Opera, and amazing musicians present and past, including Tommy Banks, Eric Marienthal, Wayne Bergeron, Moe Koffman and many more.
Jim Brenan
Saxophone
Award Winning Saxophonist, educator and composer Jim Brenan is one of Canada's foremost Jazz Musicians. Besides being a Full Professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, he performs as musical director and composer of the Jim Brenan 11, as a member of groups led by Bassist Rubim De Toledo and pianist Chris Andrew, and leads a variety of all-star ensembles made up of himself, and Canada's most dynamic musicians. His latest release '50/50', features Brenan for the first time on disc as a bandleader of a large ensemble after performing for decades in an almost exclusively small group format with the likes of Bryan Lynch, Terrell Stafford, Tommy Banks, PJ Perry, Luis Bonilla, Randy Brecker, Maynard Ferguson, Peter Bernstein, Dana Hall, Geoff Keezer and Oliver Jones among others.
Brenan’s extensive studies of music as diverse as Afro-beat from Nigeria, Black American Jazz and funk, and other cultures have greatly informed his thinking. “It’s exposed me to rhythms and harmonies and ways of communing with music that I never would have been exposed to had I not studied it,” says Brenan, who is presently composing music for his next large ensemble release.
The Summit reserves the right to change or substitute faculty at any time