Faculty / Musician Mentors
All of the instructors at the Conservatory are top level professional musicians who also have significant teaching experience, including teaching at the University level and working as clinicians across the country. The size of the faculty is dependent on the number of participants, but each session includes a combination of permanent and guest instructors. Current mentors include:
Mike Abbott
Mike has been performing, recording, and touring with bands all over the world for over 15 years. He has performed with The Rolling Stones, Sammy Davis Jr., Burt Bacharach, Paul Schaffer, Joey Calderazzo, and Marc Copeland, among others. After earning his Music Degree in 1988 at the University of Miami in Florida, he moved to New York City and started playing clubs, touring in the US and Europe, and recording. In 2003, Mike and his family moved back to Denver where he is doing a lot of teaching as well as performing with Lannie Garrett, D.K.O. and other groups.
Brad Goode
Brad received his B.M. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1985, studying with renowned trumpeter Vincent DiMartino. Upon moving back to Chicago in 1985, he began working with the bands of Von Freeman and Eddie Johnson. He received his M.M degree from DePaul University in 1987.In the ensuing years, Brad was featured with the combos of Red Rodney, Al Cohn, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Frank Morgan, Don Lanphere, Curtis Fuller, Jack DeJohnette and many others. He led his own combo from 1986-98, appearing at major festivals and nightclubs around the world. Currently on the faculty at CU - Boulder, he has also served on the faculties of the American Conservatory of Music, New Trier H.S., Cuyahoga CC and the Univ.of Cincinnati.
Eric Gunnison
Pianist Eric Gunnison was raised in a musical family in Buffalo N.Y. and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating with a B.A. in Music Composition. Eric has toured and recorded with Carmen McRae, Roberta Gamborini, Rare Silk, Nelson Rangell, Ron Miles, and performed with Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Phil Woods, Red Rodney, Bobby Shew,Jerry Bergonzi, John McNeil and Eddie Gomez, and many other jazz greats. Eric serves on the faculty at the DU Lamont School of Music, and works as a clinician and music educator all over the country. He also performs his original music with his band Wake Up Call, and with the group Convegence. Eric is also active in the local studio scene, having created music for commercials by clients such as TCI, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Primestar, and McDonalds.
John Gunther
John Gunther received a BM from the Berklee College of Music, a MA from the University of Miami in Jazz Studies, and a Doctorate from NYU. He is currently teaching at CU-Boulder. In between classes, he has managed to tour with the Woody Herman Orchestra, composed an original score for Dave Liebman and the Brooklyn Jazz Composers Orchestra, won an NEA grant to study with Joe Lavano, and authored the book Playing the Saxophone Inside & Out. He is a busy freelance musician and private instructor and frequently appears as a guest artist and clinician at various schools and festivals nationally.
Jeff Jenkins
Jeff stays busy as a performer, composer/arranger, part-time faculty at CU Boulder, and engineer/entrepreneur (at his studio, Mile Hi Music). He has appeared with many jazz greats, including: Freddie Hubbard , Eddie Harris, Dakota Staton, Frank Morgan, Marlena Shaw, David Fathead Newman, Teddy Edwards, and Richie Cole. He attended the University of North Texas, where he led his own groups. After college he moved to New York where he studied with the likes of Richie Beirach, Kenny Barron, and Fred Hersch.
Bob Rebholz
Bob is truly a “renaissance man” of music, He is an alumnus of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with teacher certificate from the University of Wisconsin. Having mastered soprano, tenor and alto saxophone, trumpet, flute, and other woodwind instruments, he has utilized those
talents with legends such as The Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra, Peter Kater, Chris Daniels, Dianne Schuur, Sheena Easton, Nancy Wilson, Bill Conti, George Shearing, The Temptations, Four Tops, James Taylor, Suzanne Vega, Billy Eckstein, Peter Kater (7 CDs), Images (4 CDs) and dozens more!
Mark Simon
When headliners come to Colorado and need sidemen, Mark Simon is one of the first names to be suggested by anyone who knows the local jazz scene. While he has made Denver his home, he has had many years of experience playing with top name players from all over the country. In addition to touring with Carmen McCrae, he has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Rosemary Clooney, Dave Grusin, Eddie Harris, Joe Farrell, Roben Ford, Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, and Regina Carter. When he isn’t glued to ESPN, Mark finds time to be a valued clinician in the Douglas County School system and various colleges and high schools around the region. He also serves on the faculty of CU - Boulder.
Paul Romaine (Artistic Director and Co-Founder)
Paul has led, recorded, or performed with countless combinations of the Denver area's best players and with internationally acclaimed artists such as Eddie Harris, Benny Golson, James Moody, Larry Coryell, Gunther Schuller, Eddie Gomez, Bobby Watson, Anita O'Day, and Clark Terry.Paul is also a member of the Convergence, and the Ken Walker Sextet, and has toured with the Woody Herman Orchestra. He studied jazz composition at the Lamont School of Music and, in 1991 received a degree in recording engineering from the CU -Denver. He has served as a mentor musician/clinician in several Denver area school districts, as well as in the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Education Program. . Paul is on the faculty at the CU - Boulder. In Spring of 2005, Paul was honored to travel to Washington D.C. to receive a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award from the U.S. Dept. of Education.
Eric Trujillo  Denver native Eric Trujillo is the founding director of CCJA’s Latin ensemble, one of the only groups of its kind in the region. Eric studied at Metro State College and the Berklee School of Music, and has gone on be a busy freelance saxophone and latin percussion artist and educator. He is the director of Mambotet and the Latin Arts and Music Project, is a mentor in the Douglas County school district. and is a Meinl Percussion artist. Eric has played with such greats as J.P. Torres, Victor Mendoza, Lee Konitz, and Bobby Shew.
Ken Walker
Ken Walker received his Bachelor of Art Degree in Music Education from Arkansas Tech University. Through 1985 he worked as a free-lance bassist n the Little Rock area, and in late 1985 Ken moved to Denver, where he has become one of the busiest bass players in the area. Ken is also an in demand educator/clinician, and has been a member of the Lamont School of Music faculty since 1991. He has played with a host of highly regarded musicians including Eddie Harris,Tom Harrell,Randy Brecker,Nat Adderly,Slide Hampton, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Freddie Hubbard, James Moody,Roy Hargrove, Billy Hart, Bob Berg,Benny Golson, Ravi Coltrane, Emily Remler, and Sheila Jordan. He has own sextet, whose first album Terra Firma, landed at #56 on JazzWeek's Top 100 Jazz CDs of 2005.
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