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BIOGRAPHY:

Photo Jeff Franks

MARTIN NORGAARD BIOS

Short Version:

Martin Norgaard is the author of the groundbreaking method books Jazz Fiddle Wizard and Jazz Fiddle/Viola/Cello Wizard Jr. for Mel Bay Publications. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education with a jazz emphasis at The University of Texas at Austin. Norgaard taught jazz and commercial strings at Belmont University and Vanderbilt University in Nashville for six years and was director of the Belmont Jazz String Quartet and Jazz String Septet, which have been featured at IAJE 2001, MENC 2002 and ASTA 2003. Norgaard is a frequent clinician at state and national conventions of ASTA, TMEA, OMEA, IMEA, MENC, and IAJE and has taught at summer workshops such as the IAJE Teacher Training Institute, the South Carolina Suzuki Institute, the Augusta Heritage Festival and Vanderbilt's International Fiddle School.

Long Version:

After studying at the University of Copenhagen and the New England Conservatory, fiddler and keyboardist Martin Norgaard earned his baccalaureate in jazz performance from William Paterson University in New Jersey. As a graduate student at Queens College in New York, he further pursued his interest in jazz performance by earning a master’s degree. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow in Music Education with a jazz emphasis at The University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to leading his own jazz groups in New York and Nashville (NEW CD now available), Norgaard has been a part of Rich McCready’s, Buddy Spicher’s and Matt King’s bands and done numerous showcases and sessions. Martin Norgaard was an adjunct faculty member at Belmont University’s School of Music, where in addition to teaching private lessons, he coached and wrote for the Belmont Jazz String Quartet. The ensemble was featured at The International Association of Jazz Educators convention in New York City, January 2001, at the Tennessee Music Educators Association's March 2001 conference in Nashville and at the MENC conference in Nashville, 2002. Mr. Norgaard was himself a featured panelist and performer at the IAJE convention in NY, IAJE 2002 in Long Beach, ASTA studio teachers forum 2002 and IAJE's Teacher Training institute 2002 in Kansas City. In 2003 Norgaard was featured as clinician at IAJE, TMEA, MENC and ASTA. See the workshop schedule. In addition Mr. Norgaard taught the course "Introduction To Jazz Improvising For Strings" at Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt. Mr. Norgaard has done clinics and workshops on local and national levels from conducting jazz improvising exercises with middle school orchestras and doing day-long in-service workshops for string teachers to conducting week-long seminars.

Martin Norgaard is the author of Mel Bay’s transcriptions of Bonnie Rideout's Scottish fiddle record "Kindred Spirits", Aubrey Haynie’s "Doin’ My Time", Mel Bay's "French Tangos for Violin" and Mel Bay’s "The Greatest Stars Of Bluegrass Music" (fiddle edition). One of Martin's own solos is transcribed in the Fiddle 2000 Anthology (MB98376BCD) also published by Mel Bay. For audio samples see the Audio Samples page. He the author of the step by step jazz violin instruction book,  Jazz Fiddle Wizard, published by Mel Bay in August, 2000. A review in IAJE's Jazz Educators Journal, March 2001 issue by Dr. John Kuzmich, Jr. states, "A musical adventure right from the very first page, this method is a winner." Norgaard has just release the new series for middle and high school  Jazz Fiddle Wizard Jr.

For more information contact Martin by e-mail at Martin@jazzNOSPAMfiddlewizard.com (remove NOSPAM before sending)

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