North Carolina State University Jazz Orchestra

• Fougaro Art Center
• May 24, 2026 at 8:00 PM

Dr. Wes Parker has served as the Director of Jazz Studies at North Carolina State University since 2006. He directs the jazz ensembles, coaches jazz combos, and teaches jazz history and jazz improvisation. Dr. Parker holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Tennessee Tech University, a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy from The University of Southern Mississippi.

Parker’s trombone playing has been heard in jazz ensembles and orchestras throughout the United States. As an active freelance musician, Parker has performed with such well-known artists as Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Michael Feinstein, Josh Groban, Aretha Franklin, Idina Menzel, Regis Philbin, Placido Domingo, the Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller Orchestras, the Temptations, and the Pointer Sisters. He is a regular in the North Carolina Opera and Ballet Orchestras, The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and is a long-time member of the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

An active clinician, Dr. Parker has worked with middle school, high school, and collegiate jazz ensembles, as well as numerous marching bands throughout the Southeast. He has served as the director of All-State and All-District honor bands in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Prior to his appointment at NC State, he served as an interim professor of trombone at The University of Southern Mississippi, and spent time teaching public school in Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Under the direction of Dr. Wes Parker, the performing ensembles of the NC State Jazz program consist of three big bands (The Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Lab Band, and Jazz Studio Band), and includes three to five combos each semester.  In addition to the performing ensembles in the jazz program, there are also opportunities to study jazz improvisation and jazz history, as well as to earn a minor in music performance with a jazz emphasis.  The NC State Jazz Orchestra is the premier performing group in the program and has twice been invited to perform at the North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference in the last several years and was honored to be the first collegiate performing ensemble from the state of North Carolina to be invited to perform at the prestigious Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Festival in Chicago in 2022. 

The NC State Jazz Combo is the top combo in the program and has performed throughout the state and, in 2019, released the group’s first full length studio album, Whistlin’.  The album consists of nine original pieces composed, arranged, performed, and produced by the members of the group, and was guided under the direction of Dr. Parker and jazz faculty member Jason Foureman.  The NC State Jazz Combo recently completed recording its second album, For the First Time Again, in May of 2022, and the Jazz Orchestra is in the final postproduction stages of completing its first professional recording project.  In the last 16 years the jazz program at NC State has grown to become one of the largest collegiate jazz programs in North Carolina, and has featured many guest artists such as Bobby Shew, Jeff Coffin, Jiggs Whigham, Chris Vadala, Tim Armacost, and Wayne Bergeron, just to name a few.  NC State University is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, NC with significant focus on STEM disciplines.  

The NC State Department of Music offers a strong music minor program consisting of general music studies, music performance, and arts entrepreneurship; and recently launched a degree in Music Technology in Fall 2024.  A large percentage of the jazz program is composed of students majoring in engineering and various other STEM disciplines, with more than 20 jazz students per semester studying in the performance minor.  The program provides solid foundational and rewarding experiences in jazz performance, and graduates leave with a profound understanding of the arts and an ability to perform jazz on every imaginable level.  While some students in the NC State jazz program go on to careers in music, many others continue playing in their communities as they work in other professions.