Clint Ashlock (Trumpet)
Trumpeter/composer/bandleader Clint Ashlock grew up in the Kansas City area. A dedicated and tireless contributor to the scene, Clint has notably served as Artistic Director of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, a position he has held since 2013. He has led his own bands of varying size and genre for over 25 years, and enjoys playing as a sideman in groups like The Marcus Lewis Big Band and Summer Breeze. Ashlock has produced a number of recordings, including two with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra (Rhapsody and In The Key Of KC), his big band project New Jazz Order featuring Bobby Watson, and The Return, with Denver pianist Ben Markley. As a trumpeter, Ashlock reflects the lineage of his hard bop idols such as Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, and his big band writing is heavily influenced by Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, and Dan Gailey. Ashlock has been featured as a soloist with such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, and Natalie Cole among others, and was featured at the First Jazz Education Festival in Shanghai, and at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Sydney.
Dr. Theresa Chen (Piano)
Theresa Chen, D.M.A., is an active, well-rounded musician. She currently serves as an assistant professor of jazz studies at Texas A&M University–Kingsville (TAMUK). She is the first Taiwanese-American to teach jazz full-time at the music college in the United States. She has given clinics, lectures, and masterclasses around Taiwan and America. Her first jazz album, Whispering to God, was nominated in the Best Jazz Tune category of the 2022 Golden Indie Music Awards in Taiwan. She was also nominated in the top 8 for the People’s Choice—Artist/Band category of the 2023 Syracuse Area Music Awards (the SAMMYs).
Dr. Chen has shared the stage with famous jazz artists such as Gary Smulyan, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Liebman, Bria Skonberg, Boris Kozlov, Victor Provost, Allison Miller, Chien-Chien Lu, Nathan Graybeal (Saxologic), Michael Wang, Will Lyle, Gerry Gibbs, and Scott Wendholt. She also performed at the Texas Jazz Festival, South Texas Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, WGMC-Jazz90.1 Radio Station, KEDT Radio Station, Civic Morning Musicals, Syracuse Opera, WCNY (Symphoria), and many other prominent jazz venues in Taiwan, Central New York, and South Texas area.
Born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Chiayi, Taiwan, Dr. Chen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in classical piano at National Taiwan Normal University in 2013 with a Certificate in Digital Visual and Sound Arts and minors in flute and voice. In 2015 and 2018, she earned Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in jazz piano performance at Eastman School Music, with a minor in Music Theory and a Certificate of Advanced Achievement in the Art of Improvisation. She has studied jazz and historical improvisations with the legendary jazz pianist Harold Danko, Gary Versace, Bill Dobbins, Dr. Dariusz Terefenko, Vincent Lenti, and organist/harpsichordist Edoardo Bellotti.
