The University of North Carolina at Pembroke is pleased to announce the 16th annual Honor Jazz Festival, to be held on the UNCP campus on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
Information about nominating students will be sent to directors in February. Directors can send a message to Meggan Hollis at meggan.hollis@uncp.edu to confirm that they are on the list to receive that email.
For more information, please contact Dr. Aaron Vandermeer at vander@uncp.edu.
The 2025 JazzFest clinician is Graham Breedlove, trumpet soloist in the Army Blues jazz band.
Jazz Times magazine writes: "Breedlove has chops...and is the leader of a tight, forceful band". AllAboutJazz.com has called Graham Breedlove "A trumpet player with an exquisite tone and provocative harmonic ideas...Breedlove exhibits great control and cranks out some head-turning melodic ideas". The International Trumpet Guild's Journal raves, "...one of the most exciting trumpet players on the planet!" Also active as a composer, Graham’s work has been featured on NBC’s Today show, Food Network’s Emeril Live, ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos and the Washington Post has called it “...terrific...with luminous, fine-grained autumnal harmonies...”.
Since taking up the trumpet at age twelve in his hometown of
Currently, Mr. Breedlove is a trumpet soloist with the Army Blues jazz ensemble, part of The United States Army Band, "Pershing's Own" in Washington, DC and he has appeared as a soloist, composer/arranger or lead player on seven recordings with the Army Blues. Graham also appears as musical director, soloist, and composer/arranger on “Voodoo Boogaloo” and “Back to the Bayou”, critically acclaimed recordings by Swamp Romp, a Louisiana music group comprised of members of the Army Blues. In an effort to promote jazz, Breedlove has presented clinics, masterclasses, and has appeared as a guest soloist at colleges and universities across the country, and he is a member of the jazz faculty at George Mason University. Prior to his appointment at GMU, he served on the faculties of Towson University, Catholic University of America and the National Jazz Workshop. Graham also appears on the Hal Leonard Jazz Play Along Series, an educational book/CD series with over 150 volumes currently available in music stores around the world. During the 2008 holiday season, Breedlove volunteered to participate in a USO concert tour of
Mr. Breedlove holds the Bachelor of Music degree from