Monterey, Calif.; December 16, 2014; Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader in jazz education since 1958, is pleased to announce that the Arts Council for Monterey County will honor Monterey Jazz Festival education director and influential jazz musician Paul Contos as a Champion Arts Educator at its 10th Annual Champion of the Arts Gala on Saturday, January 17, 2015, at the Portola Hotel and Spa in downtown Monterey.
Since the 1970s, Paul Contos has been involved in jazz performance and education in the Monterey and San Francisco bay areas, and internationally. He has mentored and taught an impressive roster of musicians through his distinguished work for the Monterey Jazz Festival’s jazz education programs as saxophone clinician, director of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and Monterey County High School All-Stars.
He has been an essential part of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s jazz education programs since 1984, and is active as a saxophone clinician, educator, and performer at various educational festivals, clinics, concerts, and workshops in the U.S., Japan, and Brazil.
Contos, a current faculty member at UC Santa Cruz, has additionally taught at Monterey Peninsula College, and, for 12 years, was at Cal State University Monterey Bay, where he developed the curriculum and pedagogy for the Music Recording/Technology Concentration.
He has received three performer grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has served as Artist-In-Residence for the California Arts Council. He conducts, performs, and adjudicates at college and high school jazz competitions internationally, including Monterey’s Next Generation Jazz Festival. In September 2009, Contos was appointed as the Director of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars Orchestra.
An inspiration and active in the formation of the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, Contos has played with many world-renowned jazz artists such as Mundell Lowe, Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, Jon Hendricks, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Sheila Jordan, Ray Drummond, Eddie Marshall, Kenneth Nash, Vince Lateano, Madeline Eastman, Mark Levine, Rebeca Mauleón, Bruce Forman, Tee Carson, Dave Eshelman, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, the Heath Brothers, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Regina Carter, Gary Burton, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard, John Faddis, David “Fathead” Newman, and many others. He has recorded with Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, John Patitucci, Richie Beirach, Alan Broadbent, Terence Blanchard, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, John Abercrombie, and Alex Acuna.
Contos, a longtime Monterey Peninsula resident, is being honored by the Arts Council for Monterey County as a Champion Arts Educator, alongside composer Philip Glass, journalist Mac McDonald, philanthropist Nancy Ausonio, artist Pilar Mendoza, volunteer leader Steve Vagnini, and the nonprofit Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters Association.
The Champions of the Arts Gala celebrates leadership and excellence, and proceeds benefit arts education in Monterey County. Tickets for the Gala are $95 before January 8, and can be purchased by calling 831.622.9060 or on Eventbrite.com. For more information, visit www.arts4mc.org.
About Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates the legacy of jazz and expands the boundaries of and opportunities to experience jazz through the creative production of performances and educational programs.
###
For more information please contact:
Timothy Orr, Marketing Associate
Monterey Jazz Festival
Direct Line: 831.646.8670
Monterey Office: 831.373.3366
[email protected]
www.montereyjazzfestival.org