Jeff Wolfe

Director of Jazz Studies
Smith Music Hall 303
304-696-3613

Biography

Jeff Wolfe is the Director of Jazz Studies at Marshall University, where he teaches various courses across the jazz studies curriculum, as well as applied trumpet (jazz emphasis). He also conducts the MU Jazz Ensemble I, and founded the MU Soul Stampede, a pop/soul commercial music ensemble. Furthermore, Mr. Wolfe serves as the director and education coordinator for the Jazz-MU-Tazz summer jazz camp housed at Marshall University. Mr. Wolfe holds an M.M. in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied jazz improvisation, pedagogy, history, and composition with world-famous jazz educator and composer David Baker. Jeff is an active performer, adjudicator, and clinician having appeared on NPR’s nationally syndicated program Mountain Stage and as a soloist with Grammy Award-winning jazz artist and vocalist Gregory Porter. He frequently performs with Columbia Records recording artist and former America’s Got Talent winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., and has performed in the orchestras of numerous national touring and regional musical theatre productions. Jeff is the co-founder and music director of the Jewel City Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece big band established as a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz education and performance in underserved communities. He has also served as an adjudicator for the jazz division of the National Trumpet Competition, appeared as a clinician for the Jazz Education Network, and his most recent article, “Making the Changes,” was published in the September, 2023 issue of SBO+ Magazine. Most recently, Jeff served as the big band director for the 45th CIVEBRA Summer Music Festival at the Escola de Música in Brasília, Brazil. Mr. Wolfe is a charter member of the Jazz Education Network where he serves on the education committee.