Steve Wiest

Steve Wiest
From Lab 2013: Steve Wiest directing the One O'Clock Lab Band during a recording session at Crystal Clear Sound Studios, Dallas, May 19–21, 2013 (photo by Michael Clements)
Background information
Birth name	John Stephen Wiest
Born	Cleveland
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, cartoonist, music educator, author
Instruments	Trombone
Labels	Arabesque ArtistShare
Associated acts	Maynard Ferguson University of Denver Lamont School of Music
Website	www.artistshare.com/stevewiest

Steve Wiest (né John Stephen Wiest; born 1957) is an American trombonist, composer, arranger, big band director, music educator at the collegiate level, jazz clinician, author, and illustrator/cartoonist. From 1981 to 1985, he was a featured trombonist and arranger with the Maynard Ferguson Band. Wiest is in his third year as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music. He is the Coordinator of the 21st Century Music Initiative at the school. Wiest has been a professor for twenty-eight of the thirty-six years that he has been a professional trombonist, composer, and arranger. From 2007 to 2014, Wiest was Associate Professor of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas College of Music and, from March 2009 to August 2014, he was director of the One O'Clock Lab Band and coordinator of the Lab Band program. At North Texas, Wiest also taught conducting, trombone, and oversaw The U-Tubes — the College of Music's jazz trombone band. Wiest is a three-time Grammy nominee — individually in 2008 for Best instrumental Arrangement and in 2010 for Best Instrumental Composition, and collaboratively in 2010 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, which he directed. As of 2013, Wiest has in excess of 58 arrangements and compositions to his credit, which include 10 original compositions from his current project (see 2013–2014 project, below).

Establishing a small group, rather than a big band, as the premier jazz ensemble and intensified advanced music laboratory was a pedagogical innovation of Wiest. The Jazz Symposium produced two CDs, one featuring guest artist Ernie Watts. Under the direction of Wiest, The Jazz Symposium performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and King's College London