2026 Festival Clinicians
Members of The Sistering:
Lenora Zenzalai Helm, Nnenna Freelon, Kate McGarry, Lois Deloatch
Curtis Gaesser
Curtis Gaesser had been teaching in the Folsom/Cordova School District since 1984. He has been at Folsom High School since 1984 and retired in May of 2023 after 39 years teaching. He taught Marching Band, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Choir, 3 Jazz Bands, Concert Band, Color Guard, and Drum line. His Jazz Band I has been awarded ‘Best High School Jazz Band’ 19 times from Downbeat Magazine since 1993. The Folsom HS Jazz Choir I has won “Best High School Vocal Jazz Group” over 26 times since 1994. Curtis received the Folsom Cordova School District “Teacher of the Year” in 1990 and 2011. He was the ‘California State Jazz Educator’ of the Year in 2003. In 2008, he was awarded the “Annual National Achievement Award in Jazz Education” by Downbeat Magazine, and in 2008 the “Music Achievement Award” by Sacramento News and Review. The city of Folsom presented him with the ‘Person of the Year’ award in 2001. In 2016 he was awarded ‘Most Outstanding” Teacher award from the city of Folsom, and the Northern California Band Directors Association ‘Most Outstanding Educator Award’. In 2017 he was awarded best “Music Educator” for Northern California by the California Music Educators Association.
Curtis Gaesser was a top 10 finalist Grammy nominee for the Grammy Educator Award in 2018.
In 2023 he was awarded the John La Porta Jazz educator award from the Jazz Education Network. This is one of one award presented each year. It was presented in Florida. It is sponsored and funded by the Berklee School of Music in Boston.
Also in 2023, The city of Folsom awarded him the Teacher of the Decade award.
In October, of 2023, Curtis Gaesser was inducted into the Downbeat Educator Hall of Fame and presented in the October issue of Downbeat magazine.
In 2024 Curtis was inducted into the California Alliance for Jazz, State Hall of Fame Award presented at the CASMEC conference.
Curtis started the Folsom Jazz Festival in 1989 and it is now the largest educational Jazz Festival in California. There are 144 groups all in one day last year.
In 2023 Curtis Gaesser started the nonprofit Music School called the “Live Performing Arts Academy” in Folsom California. With this start, the new “California Jazz Championships” began in 2023 in the city of Folsom and has doubled in size for April of 2024. Go to Liveperformingartsacademy.com for more updated information.
The Folsom High School Jazz Band has won sweepstakes as the best Instrumental group at the Reno Jazz festival many times and the last 6 years in a row when it was still a competitive festival. The Folsom High School Jazz Choir has won sweepstakes at the Reno Jazz Festival many times as the best Vocal group since 1991.
The Jazz Band has won the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival three times as the best Jazz Band in 2013, and 2020. The group has made the finals as the top three many times since 1990. The Band has performed as an artist at the Monterey Jazz Festival many times since 1992.
The Jazz Choir has won the Monterey Next Generation Jazz festival 17 times since 1993. They have performed as an artist at the Monterey Jazz Festival 17 times as well.
The Folsom High School Jazz groups have performed throughout Europe many times since 1997. Montreux, North Sea, Tuscia, Vienne, and many other jazz festivals throughout Europe.
David Scott
David Thorne Scott is a jazz singer, songwriter, composer, and teacher. His current creative project is Animal Spirits, a new musical 麻豆视频 economist John Maynard Keynes, which examines the role of love and art in a world of war, ideological polarization and economic inequality. Scott wrote the book, music and lyrics.
Scott’s album "Thornewood" explores the boundary between Jazz and Americana. Collaborators on the album include Grammy-award winners Paula Cole, Peter Eldridge, and Sara Caswell, as well as jazz luminaries Jason Palmer and Walter Smith III. Eponymous Review wrote that David “explores the intersection of Jazz and Americana, city and country, instrumentation and lyrics to create lush compositions and covers that are unifying, and healing, in their beauty.”
Scott’s album "Shade" was named a "Top 5 CD of the Year" by the Jazz Education Journal. Cadence Magazine said "he phrases like a saxophone player and is as slippery and hip as the young Mel Tormé." Critic Herb Wong wrote “I haven’t been this moved by a performance of ‘For All We Know’ since Carmen McRae.”
Scott sings and plays piano on his jazz/rock crossover album "Hopeful Romantic,” produced by multi-platinum producer Anthony Resta.
Scott is the producer and host of Songwriters in the Round, a Boston-area live performance series that has showcased over 100 singer/songwriters.
His composition “I See You” was featured in the television show The Blacklist on NBC.
David has been a soloist with the Boston Pops, the Capital Jazz Orchestra, the Melrose Symphony, and the Cape Symphony.
David is the bassist and founder of the Vintage Vocal Quartet, comprised of singer/instrumentalists who harmonize while playing bass, guitar, piano and drums. The group's repertoire is drawn from swing hits of the 1930s and 1940s by artists like Glenn Miller, the Nat King Cole Trio, the Andrews Sisters, and the Pied Pipers.
OnWeGo is a jazz collective that explores the creative vision of its four members: David Thorne Scott (vocals and bass), Mark Shilansky (piano and vocals), Sara Caswell (violin), and Eric Byers (guitar). They play original jazz/Americana songs with mythological overtones and plenty of collective improvisation.
As a member of the vocal quartet Syncopation, called "a 21st-century Manhattan Transfer‚" by the Boston Globe, he sang and played trumpet. David was an arranger, performer and founder of the vocal group Vocalogy. And he did two tours with the legendary vocal group the Four Freshmen, where he sang the high lead part and played bass.
David is Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music. He is featured on the premiere episode of the Berklee VoiceCast.