Jazz Ensemble to perform at Ohio Music Education Association concert
January 24, 2022
The YSU Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of professor of music Kent Engelhardt, will perform as a guest group at the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) District 5 Honors Jazz Ensembles concert Saturday, January 29 at 2:00 PM in the Ford Family Recital Hall of the DeYor Performing Arts Center in downtown Youngstown, Ohio.
OMEA District 5 is comprised of Ashtabula, Trumbull, and Mahoning counties, and an Honors Jazz Ensemble from each county will perform at the concert. To earn a seat in an ensemble, students from District 5 submitted auditions for membership in the groups. The guest director for the Honors Jazz Ensembles is YSU alumnus Mike Kamuf (B.M., B.M.E., ’91), who will be arranging music for the YSU Jazz Ensemble to perform. The ensemble will also feature Kamuf on trumpet.
"We are thrilled to be part of this outstanding event, which enhances the musical education of the high school students in District 5. The members of the YSU Jazz Ensemble are [also] excited to be performing the music of YSU alumnus Mike Kamuf,” Engelhardt said.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Kamuf holds Bachelor of Music degrees in both jazz performance and music education from the YSU Dana School of Music and a Master of Arts in instrumental conducting from George Mason University. His compositions and arrangements have been performed by notable jazz artists and ensembles nationally.
Kamuf is an exclusive writer for the Belwin division of Alfred Music Publishing, with titles in the jazz, string orchestra, and concert band catalogs. He has also had compositions for jazz ensembles published by UNC Jazz Press, the Neil A. Kjos Music Company, and the FJH Music Company.
Kamuf has performed with the Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey Orchestras and has recorded as a member of the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra. He served as assistant principal trumpet of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra under maestro David Effron. Currently Kamuf leads his own jazz octet, the Mike Kamuf Little Big Band, which is comprised of outstanding musicians from the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas.
Kamuf has taught instrumental music for Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools since 1992. He has been the director of bands and orchestra and a music department chairperson at John T. Baker Middle School (Damascus, Maryland) since 1995.