Full Professor Dean McNeill is a versatile Canadian trumpet player/composer who regularly performs in both the classical and jazz idioms as a soloist and as an ensemble leader. In 2013 the New Edmonton Wind Sinphonia’s performance of Allan Gilliland’s composition Kalla featured McNeill as guest soloist; Kalla won the 2013 Western Canadian Music Awards (W.C.M.A.) Classical Composition award and 2015 Dean performed Kalla at the World Associate of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles conference in San Jose California with the UofS Wind Orchestra. Dean composed music for the CD Complete Rebirth of the Cool, a project headed by composer Jeff Presslaff, which created new repertoire as inspired by Miles Davis’ landmark recording Birth of the Cool. (e.g Presslaff’s project used the same instrumentation as Davis’ original recording). The Complete Rebirth of the Cool CD was also nominated for a W.C.M.A award in 2014.

Dean is currently the Artistic Director of the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra and the UofS Jazz Ensemble.

Give it a listen: Dean plays a collage of different musical styles

Dean has taught a variety of brass and jazz courses at the University of Saskatchewan for the past 23 years while performing and adjudicating throughout Canada and the United States.

A Wedge mouthpiece and Yamaha trumpet artist Dean has lead many music eduction special projects such as the UofS’s Brass Days celebrations & High School Select-Jazz educational weekend. Dean has also been an educational contributor to the Saskatoon Jazz Society’s Jazz Ensemble Workshops (2013-2015), the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s Jazz Intensive student jazz camp (2000-current) and, the International Music Camp’s jazz week (i.e. conducting both student ensemble and IMC’s jazz faculty big band).

Dean is the recipient of the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival’s Special Recognition Award, UofS Student Union Teaching Excellence Award, UofS Dept. of Music’s Dwaine Nelson Teaching Award, and, a Downbeat Magazine big band arranging award.

Dean’s past administrative activities include serving on the board of Jazz Canada (i.e. the Canadian chapter of the International Association of Jazz Education), Canadian Music Centre (i.e. Prairie Region Board), and, as Head of the Department of Music at the University of Saskatchewan (2004-2009).

Dean McNeill’s University of Saskatchewan Dept. of Music web page: https://artsandscience.usask.ca/profile/DMcNeill#/profile

University of Saskatchewan Jazz Ensemble web page: https://artsandscience.usask.ca/music/ensembles/jazz.php

For More information on the Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra visit: www.saskatoonjazzorchestra.com.