Donn Schaefer

University of Utah

Donn SchaeferDonn Schaefer is from Vancouver, Canada. Before joining the music faculty at the University of Utah, Schaefer spent five years teaching low brass and jazz studies at the University of Mississippi. He has served in similar positions at Cornell College, Grinnell College and Middle Tennessee State University. Schaefer holds degrees from Bemidji State University, MN; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and earned his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Iowa.

While still a high school student, Schaefer toured with several bands of the Canadian Military, including the Royal Air Command Band of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Other performing credits include the Lake Placid Sinfonietta (a chamber orchestra in NY), the San Francisco Ballet, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Meridian Symphony Orchestra, Tennessee Philharmonic, the touring production of Grease!, the Temptations, Marvin Hamlisch, Arranger's Publishing Company, Nashville Brass Quintet, Iowa Brass Quintet, Old Capitol Quintet, drum set playing with the Middle Tennessee Jazz Orchestra and freelance playing and recording in the Nashville/Memphis areas. Schaefer held an associate position with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 1997-1998.

For the past several years Donn Schaefer has toured and performed with the Cramer Trombone Choir, an international group of select college trombone-professors. Recent performances include Russia, Sweden, Finland, Texas, New York, and New Orleans. In 2005, Schaefer performed as a guest artist and adjudicator at the Greeley Jazz Festival. With over 300 bands participating, Greeley is host to largest invitational jazz festival in the United States.

Donn Schaefer received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts in 1999. He was listed in Who's Who among American Teachers, 2000 and 2006. Schaefer's students have won or placed in the finals of a variety of competitions, most notably a first place winner in the National Solo Trombone Competition in the spring of 2000.