Fred
Irby, III
All
State Jazz Band
Fred
Irby, III, a native of Mobile, AL, is
a graduate of Grambling State University (LA) and Southern Illinois University
(Edwardsville). As professor of music at Howard University in Washington, DC,
Mr. Irby is the coordinator of instrumental music, trumpet instructor, and
director of the internationally acclaimed Howard University Jazz Ensemble
(HUJE); he has been a member of the Department of Music faculty at Howard
University since 1974. He is also the principal trumpet player of the Kennedy
Center Opera House Musical Theater Orchestra and has recorded several films for
the History Channel. He played principal trumpet on the cast recording of
Stephen Sondheim's latest musical Bounce.
The
HUJE has
37 recordings to its credit, and has given concerts in China, Japan, Romania,
Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, Guatemala, Colombia, U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas
and St. Croix), and Martinique. The HUJE was also featured on the CBS
television Kennedy Center Honors Galas in 1992 (Lionel Hampton), 1996 (Benny
Carter), and 2005 (Tony Bennett).
Mr.
Irby served as music director for the Washington Ballet during its 2002 visit
to Havana, Cuba, for the 17th International Ballet Festival. He visited
Caracas, Venezuela, with the Howard University Jazztet in 2004, giving lectures
at several universities, and he traveled with HUJE to Japan in 2005, 2007, and
2009 to give charity concerts for disadvantaged children and families.
As
a recitalist, Mr. Irby has commissioned and premiered compositions by two
eminent African American composers, the late Ulysses S. Kay (nephew of New
Orleans jazz cornetist Joe "King" Oliver) and Dr. Frederick C.
Tillis. He has performed in the orchestras for two recordings by the Baltimore
Choral Arts Society under the direction of maestro Tom Hall: Dave Brubeck's
cantata The Gates of Justice, with the composer as piano soloist, and Christmas
at America's First Cathedral (2010), recorded at the Basilica of the
National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore,
Maryland. Mr. Irby has performed in the orchestras for the Twentieth Century
Fox movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, the ABC television show Dancing
with the Stars, and the NBC television show America's Got Talent.
In
2008, Mr. Irby was selected by DownBeat magazine to receive an Achievement
Award in Jazz Education and was inducted into the Grambling State
University (LA) Alumni Hall of Fame. At the 2009 MENC (now NAfME)
Teaching Music Awards ceremony, Mr. Irby received the Disney Performing Arts
Award for Excellence in Teaching Jazz and he was designated a Lowell
Mason Fellow at a ceremony during the MENC 2010 Music Education Week.
Additionally, he was named the conductor of the 2011 MENC All-National Jazz
Band. This group performed its inaugural concert at the 2011 Music Education
Week in Arlington, VA.
He
has served as music director for the Northwest MENC, Oklahoma, and Maryland
State Jazz Ensembles, and serves as an adjudicator for the Congressional Black
Caucus Spouses Performing Arts Committee and the National PTA Composition
competition.
He
holds active membership in the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, The
National Association for Music Education (NAfME, formerly MENC), The
International Trumpet Guild, ICSOM: International Conference of Symphony and
Opera Musicians, and The American Federation of Musicians. He is a member of
the Board of Directors of the International Women's Brass Conference and the
Washington Jazz Arts Institute.
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