2012 - The Adjudicators.

  Chuck Dotas

Chuck Dotas is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at James Madison University, where he directs the JMU Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Dotas also founded and coordinates the JMU Office of International Programs' Summer Study Abroad jazz residency "The Arts and Culture of Montreal."

The JMU Jazz Ensemble under Dr. Dotas’ direction has performed at the Montreux International Jazz and Blues festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Terrace Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockville, MD, the Virginia Music Educators Association annual conference, and at Sala Rossa in Montréal, Québec. The ensemble has been featured with the United States Navy Commodores Jazz Ensemble and the United States Air Force Airmen of Note Jazz Ensemble, and has performed at James Madison University
with many guest jazz artists, including John Hollenbeck, Theo Bleckmann, Dick Oatts, John D’Earth, and Clay Jenkins.

Dr. Dotas has served as a clinician, honor band director, and composer-in-residence at universities and jazz festivals in Colorado, Kansas, Washington, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, and Québec. He has presented clinics at the International Association for Jazz Education, the Eastern Regional convention of the National Association for Music Education (MENC), and the Virginia Music Educators Association.

Dr. Dotas is well known as a composer and arranger. In his capacity as Composer in Residence for the Staunton Music Festival, he has been commissioned to write music for, and performed with, oudist Simon Shaheen, pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen, and sarod master and MacArthur Fellow Aashish Khan, among others. His music for jazz ensemble has been commissioned by the West Chester Jazz Orchestra and recorded by the South Florida Jazz Orchestra, as well as collegiate jazz ensembles at the University of Colorado, the University of Kansas, the University of Northern Colorado, and McGill University. Dr. Dotas’ music has been performed by university and professional ensembles in Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and throughout the United States. His music is published by UNC Jazz Press, Walrus Music, and Margun Music.

Prior to assuming directorship of the Jazz Studies program at JMU, Dr. Dotas taught on the Faculty of Jazz Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and taught in the Wisconsin public schools for six years. Professor Dotas earned degrees at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay (BA), the Eastman School of Music (MM), and the University of Northern Colorado (DA).

Dale Engstrom


Dr. Larry M. Engstrom is Director of the University of Nevada, Reno School of the Arts, Director of the Reno Jazz Festival, and he continues to teach Applied Trumpet. He was Chair of the Department of Music and Dance from 2000 - 2003, and Director of Jazz Studies from 1989 - 2000.

Dr. Engstrom received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from California State University at Fresno, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Trumpet Performance at the University of North Texas, where he was jazz soloist with their renowned One O'Clock Jazz Band. He currently performs with the Collective, is a member of the Great Basin Brass Quintet, and he performs regularly with many other Northern Nevada music ensembles. From 1988 - 2001 he was Principal Trumpet with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra.

 Dan Gailey

Dan Gailey, saxophonist/composer/arranger, is the Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music at the University of Kansas, where he directs Jazz Ensemble I and Jazz Combo I and produces the annual KU Jazz Festival. He is also the director of the Midwestern Music Academy, KU's summer music program which includes the KU Jazz Workshop. Dan is the recipient of the 1996 IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship, an annual award which identifies an emerging jazz composer from an international field of candidates. Under his direction, the KU Jazz Studies Program has been the recipient of ten DownBeat Student Music Awards, including Jazz Ensemble I's award as Best College Big Band in the United States or Canada in 1997. Jazz Ensemble I has appeared under his direction at IAJE Conferences in New York City, Atlanta and Boston, the 1992 Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, and the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master of Music degree in Theory/Composition from the University of Northern Colorado. His compositions can be heard on numerous professional and college big band albums and are published exclusively through UNC Jazz Press. What Did You Dream?, his debut CD with the Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra, will be released in July 2010 on Origin/OA2 Records and features all original compositions. Dan also produced the self-titled, 1994 debut CD recording of the Kansas City Boulevard Big Band and the follow-up 1996 CD by the same group, Stellar.

Dan has been active as a freelance saxophonist in Seattle, Denver and Kansas City, performing with Kevin Mahogany, Eric Marienthal, Red Richards, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, and many others, and has appeared as a guest artist/clinician throughout the United States and Canada, and in Sweden. He is an original member of the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band, and has been commissioned twice to write new compositions for the band. Dan has directed numerous festival honor groups, including all-state jazz ensembles in California, Colorado, Washington, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Minnesota, and the 1996 NBA National Honors Jazz Ensemble.


 James Miley


Composer and Jazz Pianist James Miley, recipient of the prestigious IAJE/ASCAP Gil Evans Fellowship in Jazz Composition, has been a featured composer at the International Jazz Composers Symposium in Tampa, FL, and made his Carnegie Hall debut as a composer with After the Water, the Clouds (2006), premiered by the James Logan Wind Symphony under the direction of Ramiro Barrera.  His work for large jazz ensembles has been commissioned by many of the top university and high school big bands in the nation, most recently for the California All-State Honor Jazz Band, the University of Texas at Arlington, the Las Vegas Academy and the Monterey Next Generation Festival.  He has appeared as a guest composer and director at numerous festivals and universities throughout the country over the past decade, including the University of Kansas, University of Michigan, University of Nevada, University of Oregon, Drury University, CSU Northridge, California Institute of the Arts, and the Reno, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Fort Lewis and Monterey Jazz Festivals. His catalog of compositions and arrangements is available through Walrus Music, Sierra Music and UNC Jazz Press. 

Recent recordings include BUG’s The Gadfly (Origin Records,2009), the Dan Cavanagh/Jazz Emporium Big Band ‘s Pulse (OA2 Records, 2008) and and classical trumpet virtuoso

John Adler’s Confronting Inertia (Origin Classical, 2009).  Future recording projects include an electronic duo with his brother, Los Angeles-based guitarist Jeff Miley, a new dectet featuring guitarist/composer Justin Morell, and a recording/concert project featuring the music of Radiohead with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in the fall of 2011.  James is also a founding member of the composer collective ECHO with composer Dan Cavanagh, premiering his composition "Necessary Angels" for piano trio, electric guitar and human beatboxer with the Kandinsky Trio in April, 2009.

Dr. Miley holds degrees from Occidental College (B.A., 1989), the University of Arizona (M.Mus., 1994) and the University of Oregon (D.M.A., 1999), in addition to graduate-level coursework at the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.   His principal teachers in composition have included Richard Grayson, Jeff Stolet, Daniel Asia, Robert Kyr and Harold Owen, along with Steve Owen, Gary Versace, David Roitstein and Larry Koonse in Jazz Studies.  In addition to directing the Willamette Jazz Collectove, Dr. Miley's teaching and research interests include music theory, composition, improvisation, orchestration and arranging, aesthetics, popular and jazz music history and creative applications of technology in music.
A California native, James Miley previously held appointments at Virginia Tech, Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo, CA), California State University, Fresno and Albion College (Albion, MI).  He lives in Salem with his wife and two very happy, very loud children.


 Gary Pratt

Gary Pratt has led a distinguished career as a music educator, performer, conductor, adjudicator and arranger, and is co-director of the famed California State University, Northridge Jazz Studies Program at California State University, Northridge.

Throughout his career as a professional Jazz Bassist, Mr. Pratt has performed and/or recorded with such legendary jazz artists as Louie Bellson, Lionel Hampton, Snooky Young, Conti Candoli, Pearl Bailey, Bobby Shew, Don Menza, Blue Mitchell, Pete Christlieb, Cat Anderson, and more recently with Bob Florence, Kim Richmond, Billy Mintz, Mary Bond Davis, Sandra Booker, Cathy Segal-Garcia, Brian Swartz, Matt Otto, Clay Jenkins, Rob Lockart, Matt Harris and many others.

His guest conducting engagements have included performances in both Europe and Japan, and his noted versatility as a music educator has made him a highly sought after clinician and guest conductor of jazz ensembles, orchestras and concert bands.

During his tenure as a member of the music faculty at California State University, Northridge, he has served as chairman of the CSU Northridge Wind Area and Director of Orchestras. In addition his private teaching schedule, Mr. Pratt teaches courses in jazz musicianship, directs the Studio and Lab Jazz Ensembles, jazz repertoire, jazz combos, and directs, composes and arranges for "NuVeau,"CSU Northridge's avant-garde jazz ensemble.

His other activities have included memberships in the Los Angeles City Youth Orchestra Council, The Anderson Foundation's Wilde Woode Children's Center Music Program, The CSU Northridge Youth Orchestra Academy Board of Directors, The Southern California Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA), The California Music Educators Association (CMEA), and The California Band Directors Association (CBDA - where he served as guest conductor of the 1990 All-State Concert Band). In 1994, he was selected as a conducting finalist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and has also guest conducted the Los Angeles Bureau of Music "POPS" Symphony Orchestra, The Ventura Symphony and The Los Angeles South East Symphony Orchestras. In addition to his many judging activities, he is an adjudicator for The Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards and The NARAS Foundation Grammy Signature Schools.

Mr. Pratt is a past board member of the Jungendkulturzentrum Scheune, "Pink Pop" International Jazz Exchange Program, located in Ibbenburen, Germany - a program designed to "...bridge the communication gap through the exploration and study of jazz."