Bruce Diehl

Audio Clips from a recent performance at the Loose Goose Cafe in Amherst can be found here.

Bruce Diehl has been teaching and performing in the Amherst, MA area for ten years. In 1995, he completed his Masters of Music Degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His composition/arranging teachers included Jeff Holmes, Yusef Lateef and Frederick Tillis. Currently, Bruce is the Director of Jazz Studies at Amherst College, Director of the Smith College Jazz Ensemble and Combo and former Director of the Smith College Wind Ensemble.

Bruce did his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, graduating in 1990. At Eastman, he completed two Bachelors Degrees, one in Saxophone Performance, the other in Music Education. He studied with saxophonist/author Ramon Ricker, and with the late Rayburn Wright. Performances at Eastman included the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, Eastman Wind Ensemble (in which he toured Japan in 1990 and recorded a disc, Live in Japan (for CBS/Sony) and performances with Bill Dobbins, Ramon Ricker, Branford Marsalis, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Steve Houghton, and Paquito D'Rivera.

Prior to his work at Smith College, Bruce was Director of Instrumental Music and Jazz Studies at Northfield Mount Hermon School, a private boarding school serving grades 9-12. His responsibilities at NMH included directing the then newly-formed Concert Band, the NMH Jazz Ensemble, and the Jazz Combo. He taught Saxophone, Jazz History, Jazz Theory and Arranging, and Electronic Music at NMH. He was the founder and coordinator of the annual NMH Jazz Festival, hosting such artists as Robert Levy, Rob Tapper, Eric Applegate and David Sporny (with the Amherst Jazz Orchestra).

Bruce remains active as a clinician-having finished a residency in the Lake Region (ME) middle and high schools in 1998, and a clinic in Sarasota, Florida for middle school saxophonists. In November, 1998, Bruce travelled to Seattle and Spokane Washington where he was a saxophone clinician and performer at several Seattle area schools and Eastern Washington University. Bruce returned to Eastern Washington University again in November, 2000 as a guest performer and clinician for the annual November Jazz Dialogues Festival. In January, 1996, Bruce directed the District 5 (Vermont) High School Jazz Ensemble at Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT. In March, 1999, Bruce directed the Western MA Junior High District Jazz Ensemble. In February of 2001, Bruce directed the District 5 (Vermont) Junior High District Jazz Ensemble in Rutland, VT. The summer of 2001 saw Bruce teach at the inaugural season of the Jazz Dialogues Summer Camp at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA, and he has been back in subsequent summers. He has spent 11 summers (1988-1995, 1999-2001) teaching saxophone and jazz-related courses and directing various ensembles at Camp Encore/Coda, a music camp for ages 8-18 in Sweden, Maine.