About the Director

Brent Wallarab is David N. Baker Professor of Jazz Studies and professor of music in jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Wallarab’s professional accomplishments as trombonist and arranger include work with Ray Charles, Bobby Short, Bill Russo and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The American Pianists Association, and over a decade as lead trombonist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and as specialist in jazz for the Smithsonian Institution. His own work as bandleader and arranger has earned multiple four- and five-star reviews in publications including DownBeat, All About Jazz, Jazz Times, Jazziz, and international publications including The London Times. The Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra release Basically Baker: The Big Band Music of David Baker was listed in DownBeat’s Best Albums of the Decade issue, and their release of The Gennett Suite won the German Record Critics Award. Wallarab was arranger, conductor, and music director for the Emmy Award-winning TV production Wes Montgomery at 100, featuring guitarist Dave Stryker and a studio orchestra of Jacobs School students. His most recent release, Stryker with Strings, spent 20 weeks in the top five international radio charts. He is a Grammy voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Hall of Fame in 2017.