Education

Greg Weis is a composer, arranger, performer, and educator from

St. Louis, Missouri. He completed his Bachelor's in Jazz Performance at Missouri State University, where he was a student of Randy Hamm, Dr. Grant Peters, Kyle Aho, and Marty Morrison. In the spring of 2017, Greg completed his Master's in Jazz Composition at the University of Northern Colorado. He studied jazz composition with David Caffey, and trumpet with Greg Gisbert, Dr. John Adler, and Mark Isreal.  Greg is currently pursuing his DA in Jazz Studies at the University of Northern Colorado as a graduate teaching assistant. He is currently studying with Drew Zaremba and Greg Gisbert. Greg continues to expand his skills in all areas of music composition and currently studies film scoring with Ludek Drizhal.

 

Composing and Arranging

Greg's compositions and arrangements have been performed in concerts and jazz festivals in numerous cities around the United States, including Denver, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Chicago, Las Vegas, Des Moines, and New York City. His big band music is regularly performed by the DownBeat Award-winning University of Northern Colorado Jazz Lab Band I. His arrangements and compositions have also been performed by Randy Brecker, Dave Pietro, Antonio Hart, Paul McKee, Greg Gisbert, Bob Sheppard, Jim White, Clay Jenkins, Tanya Darby, the Missouri State University Jazz Studies Ensemble, the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, the Texas Music Educators Association All-State Jazz II, and numerous high school jazz bands.

 

In 2019, Greg was the grand prize winner in the jazz category of the New York Youth Symphony First Music Commissions after being named as an honorable mention in 2018. His composition "Liquid Descent" was performed by the United States Air Force Airmen of Note as part of the Young Composers Showcase at the 2018 JEN Conference. He has been honored to have his compositions and arrangements recognized with an ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, two Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards, and as a two-time finalist for the ASMAC Bill Conti Big Band Arranging and Composing Competition. His compositions are also featured on the debut album for the All Angles Orchestra with Alex Sipiagin, called New Angle.

 

Greg's music is published by UNC Jazz Press.

 

Performing

Along with performing with UNC's Lab One and the Missouri State Jazz Studies Ensemble, Greg has also performed with the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, a professional big band directed by David Caffey. In 2017, he toured the Midwest as the trumpet player for the All Angles Orchestra.

 

Teaching

As a graduate assistant at the University of Northern Colorado, Greg has taught undergraduate jazz composition lessons and small jazz ensembles including the Smoke Combo, the third-highest combo. In 2018, he directed Jazz Lab Band IV, which is comprised of graduate and undergraduate students and is the top student-directed jazz ensemble at UNC. Greg has always enjoyed teaching students of all ages and any ability levels and served as the band director at the Springfield Seventh-Day Adventist Junior Academy in Springfield, Missouri from 2013 to 2015. Greg has experience as a private trumpet lesson instructor, and as a clinician for high school jazz bands, and he has often been asked to substitute lecture for undergraduate jazz history courses, classical composition and film scoring lessons, jazz theory classes, arranging classes, and beginning classical theory. He is currently the Registration Coordinator for the UNC-Greeley Jazz Festival.