Russell Schmidt  

Director, Valley Jazz Cooperative

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As a performer, composer, conductor, and educator, Russell Schmidt has been collaborating with world-class musicians while also shaping future artists for more than three decades. A deeply creative pianist, he has shared the stage with such celebrated performers as Carl Allen, Roxy Coss, Eddie Daniels, Nick Finzer, John Hollenbeck, Gerry Mulligan, Lucas Pino, Arturo Sandoval, and Clark Terry. He has been featured as a guest soloist with Caleb Chapman’s Crescent Super Band in a performance at Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble at an alumni tribute concert to famed jazz pedagogue Rayburn Wright. Russell has also headlined jazz events with his own groups at such venues as the MIM Music Theater, Kilbourn Hall, and The Nash. Additionally, he has served as keyboard soloist with more than 30 professional orchestras, including performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

Among Russell’s recordings as a leader are Anachromysticism (2012), which highlights his wide-ranging efforts as a jazz composer, Jazz Triptych, Volume I – The Sacred (2018), a collection of hymns and spirituals reimagined in the jazz language, and his most recent release, the companion album Jazz Triptych, Volume II – The Secular (2019). He has also collaborated as a sideman on albums released by Chris Buzzelli, Zac Carson, Paul Ferguson, Barbara Knight, Vicki McDermitt, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (featuring Joe Lovano).

As a composer and arranger, Russell has written for artists as varied as saxophonists Bob Berg and Michael Brecker, the Ying String Quartet, and Rhythm & Brass. His works as a composer/arranger have been released by Advance Music, GIA Publications, the Penfield Commission Project, and VJC Publications (for which he also serves as editor). Russell is a former recipient of the Utah Arts Festival Jazz Composition Commission, which led to the premiere of his extended work for jazz ensemble, Patience. He also wrote for the Toledo Jazz Orchestra during a five-year appointment as TJO Artistic Director, during which he collaborated with such guest artists as Terence Blanchard, Ken Peplowski, and Humberto Ramirez.

Russell is a sought-after adjudicator, clinician, and guest conductor, having worked at jazz festivals and with school/universities from New York to California. Recently, he directed the 2022 ATSSB All-State Jazz Ensemble at the TMEA Conference in San Antonio, TX. After a long, distinguished career in academia, he joined Music Serving the Word Ministries in June 2014 as Coordinator of Education and Keyboardist. In early 2016, he founded MSW’s educational outreach program, the Valley Jazz Cooperative, which he continues to direct. Previously, Russell served as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of Utah. He also held faculty appointments at Northern Arizona University, the University of North Carolina–Asheville, and the Eastman School of Music, where he co-conducted the Eastman Studio Orchestra. A student of Rayburn Wright, Russell holds two degrees from Eastman.

To read testimonials from former students and colleagues regarding Russell’s teaching, click here.