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WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
SAXOPHONIST RECEIVES EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD David Demsey of Wayne, professor
of music and coordinator of jazz studies at William Paterson University
in Wayne, recently received the New Jersey Jazz Educator of the Year Award.
The prestigious award is granted by the state board of the International
Association of Jazz Educators and was presented at the annual concert
of the New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble at the New Jersey Performing
Arts Center in Newark. Demsey is an integral part
of the internationally recognized jazz program at William Paterson. His
efforts at the University in programming, staffing, recruitment and teaching
continue to raise the standard in jazz education. Demsey’s annual
Jazz It Up! summer series combines high school and university students
with guest artist jazz performers for a week of world-class jazz entertainment
and education for North Jersey. As a performer, Demsey is equally
at home on the classical and jazz stages. He performs with the New York
Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. A member of the American Saxophone
Quartet since 1993, whose new recording is "Spanning the River,"
he has premiered numerous solo and chamber works for saxophone as well
as newly discovered songs by George Gershwin and Alec Wilder. He performed
six original jazz compositions on his instructional compact disc "Demsey
& Friends: NeoBop," released with Jazz Player Magazine. As a clinician, Demsey has
been a guest artist, lecturer or conductor at more than 90 universities,
public schools, festivals and music institutes. His "Improvisation
and Concepts of Virtuosity" is the final essay in the new "Oxford
Companion to Jazz." His most recent book is "John Coltrane Plays
‘Giant Steps’" (Hal Leonard Publishing). He is a contributing
editor for Jazz Player Magazine and Saxophone Journal. His articles have
appeared in such publications as Down Beat, American Music, Instrumentalist,
and Annual Review of Jazz Studies and his five-article series was published
in the Jazz Educators Journal. For more information about
the jazz studies program at William Paterson University, please call 973-720-2320.
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