Dr. Francis “Frank” Cook is the Director of Bands at Laramie County Community College, leading both the LCCC Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, the Cheyenne Brass Band, and a versatile trombone choir Bone Voyage. He teaches a robust applied tenor and bass trombone studio, as well as music theory, music history, jazz improvisation, and conducting. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Cook is an active performer across the Front Range, currently serving as the second trombonist with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, a seat he has held since 2008. He also regularly performs with Opera Fort Collins, the Fort Collins Symphony, the Loveland Opera Theater, Larimer Chorale, Greeley Chorale, Wyoming Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Colorado Jazz Orchestra. Dr. Cook also serves as conductor of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra Brass.
Dr. Cook earned his Doctor of Arts degree from UNC, and his Master of Music, Bachelor of Music, and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Ithaca College. His primary applied teachers have included Nat Wickham, Hal Reynolds, Mark Kellogg, and Mark Babbitt. His conducting instructors have included Ken Singleton, Stephen Peterson, Larry Doebler, and Keith Kaiser.
Dr. Eric Richards is a widely performed
composer/arranger, conductor, trombonist, and
educator active in a broad range of musical
media and genres. He is also the founder and
director of the Bighorn Jazz Initiative, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit dedicated to advancing jazz
performance and education across the Mountain
West, and Music Director of its flagship ensemble, the Bighorn Jazz Orchestra. His music has been heard on six continents in performances and recordings by professional and academic ensembles in major concert venues across North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and India, including:
• National Symphony Orchestra
• Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
• Boston Pops Orchestra
• Chiara String Quartet
• US Army Field Band and Jazz Ambassadors
• USAF Band and the Airmen of Note
• USAF Academy Falconaires
• US Army Band (Pershing’s Own)
• US Marine Band (The President’s Own)
• University of North Texas Wind Ensemble
• California State University Concert Jazz Orchestra
• University of Northern Colorado Jazz Lab Band I
• Shanghai Conservatory of Music Jazz Ensemble
• Carnegie Hall (New York)
• Midwest Clinic (Chicago)
• Montreux, North Sea, and Nice Jazz Festivals.
Eric has led the Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina,
South Dakota, and Wyoming All-State High School Jazz Ensembles, as well as the Southern
California Honor Jazz All-Stars in concert performance at the 2018 NAMM Convention in
Anaheim. His music is published by Alfred/Belwin, C.L. Barnhouse, Bell Music Press (Japan), FJH Music, Hal Leonard, Kendor Music, University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press, and Eric
Richards Music Services. To hear his work, visit his SoundCloud sampler page:
https://soundcloud.com/ericrich.
His work as an active music industry professional energizes and informs his service as an
educator and mentor. From 2008–2015, Eric served as tenured Associate Professor of
Composition and Jazz Studies in the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln. At UNL, he mentored first-year through doctoral students in applied composition
(classical and jazz/vernacular styles) and organized and led the award-winning UNL Jazz
Orchestra “2.0,” an innovative 21st-century jazz ensemble combining traditional big band
instrumentation with strings, horn, and percussion. He is the recipient of the 2012 Distinguished
Teaching Award in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at UNL.
Eric also held a tenured faculty appointment as Associate Professor at Sheridan College, where he served as Director of Bands and Jazz Studies from 2015-2026. From 2004–2008, Eric served as Director of Instrumental Activities and Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.
From 1984–2004, Eric served as Composer/Arranger with the United States Army Field Band, the Army’s premiere touring musical organization based near Washington, DC, writing for wind
ensemble, symphony orchestra, jazz orchestra, and voices for audiences worldwide. He
honorably retired as a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer at the rank of Master Sergeant (E-8).
Eric earned the Doctor of Musical Arts (Composition) degree from the University of Maryland at
College Park, where he studied with Mark Wilson and Robert Gibson. He holds the Master of
Music (Composition) and Bachelor of Science (Music Education) degrees from Duquesne
University in Pittsburgh, where he studied with John “Doc” Wilson, Joseph Willcox Jenkins, and
Matty Shiner.
*Info Coming Soon
The sounds and styles of vocalist/composer Jocelyn Medina cross cultures, creeds and continents. Her original music fuses elements of Brazil, Spain, Africa and India with jazz harmonies, neo-soul/funk grooves and adventurous improvisations.
“Medina offers the jazz listener a musical journey that takes the foundation of Latin and Jazz idioms and successfully redefines the experience with thought provoking lyrics and vocal abilities far beyond the norm. Medina uses her voice as an instrument and storyteller, and invites the listener to delve into the corners of their mind with lyrics that reflect life and human conditions…” -Constance Tucker, All About Vocals
“A jazz artist whose compositions encompass the musical ethos of many different cultures… A Voice seductive, delicate, resonate, and crystalline – a major humanist who happens to communicate through singing.” (5 stars) -Grady Harp, Amazon Born in upstate NY into a family of singers, Jocelyn determined her identity as a musician at the age of five through choirs and piano lessons. She later pursued opera work at Stanford University, earned a Bachelors from Berklee College of Music, and a Masters in Vocal Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music. In addition to her degree credentials, Jocelyn is certified in all levels of master vocal pedagogue Jeanie LoVetri’s Somatic Voicework™, a functional, body-based method of vocal training, the principles of which guide her own technical practice and instruction.
Between her formal studies, Jocelyn spent 4 years living and performing in Madrid, Spain, where she recorded her first full-length CD of original compositions, “The Journey Begun.” Further musical explorations brought Jocelyn to Ghana, West Africa, as well as to Salvador, Brazil. In 2005 she returned to the United States to pursue her Masters studies, and in 2011 released her second album of original work, “We Are Water,” combining her jazz and Latin heritage with the rhythms and flavors of African and Brazilian music. Later travels brought Jocelyn to Mumbai, India, where she was exposed to new vocal and instrumental aesthetics, elements that resonate throughout the material on her third album “Common Ground,” released in 2017, blending jazz with the world music styles of India and Africa. Sponsored by a Colorado-based Pathways to Jazz grant, she began recording her fourth studio album of Brazilian material in Rio de Janeiro, and is currently completing the project with her Colorado-based band-mates, slated for release in early Fall of 2026.
Jocelyn is a passionate educator, arranger and ensemble director, and teaches lessons and master-classes in vocal technique, vocal jazz, vocal health, improvisation and composition. Over the past 25 years she has taught at the California Jazz Conservatory, Bloomingdale School of Music, La Guardia Community College, Hunter College and the True School of Music (Mumbai). Jocelyn currently serves on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, the New York Jazz Workshop School of Music, the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™, and since 2024 at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she directs their Vocal Jazz degree program.
As a bandleader, she has toured with jazz ensembles at venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, including Spain’s JAZZPARLA festival, Alte Feuermache in Mannheim, Germany, Voicingers Jazz Festival in Zory, Poland, the Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai, India, and the Goethe Institute in Salvador, Brazil. During her 16 years living in New York City, she performed regularly at Jazz at Kitano, the Iridium Jazz Club, Cornelia Street Café, Bar Next Door, Zinc Bar, and 55 Bar, among others.
Since 2015, Jocelyn has curated and hosted the “Sunday Vocal Jazz Jam” weekly vocal jazz concert and jam session series at venues throughout NYC, currently taking place virtually via Zoom. She was awarded a 2023 JEXA award for Jazz Excellence in recognition for her work through the series in support of the jazz community, and continues to spearhead new collaborative jazz events both in-person and online.
In addition to her original repertoire, she sings, plays percussion and arranges for her Brazilian Jazz project and the Boulder Choro Club. Jocelyn relocated from New York to Colorado in 2021, where she can be heard regularly around the Denver metro area at venues such as Muse Performance Space and Dazzle Jazz.
More at www.jocelynmedina.com.
