April 3, 2025 Jazz Festival
Instrumental and vocal jazz ensembles of all levels are cordially invited to participate in the 19th Annual SDSU/Brookings Optimist Jazz Festival! The Festival will be held on Thursday, April 3, 2025 at The Oscar Larsen Performing Arts Center.
Registration is Open and close on February 17, 2025.
Guest Artists
Jarrard Harris
Louisville Kentucky native saxophonist and educator Jarrard Harris has been performing and teaching in Chicago since 1998. In addition to his own group, he was also a member of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and has performed nationally and internationally with Joe Lovano, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Louis Bellson, Randy Weston, Nicholas Payton, Victor Goines, Nancy Wilson, Antonio Hart, Claudia Acuna, Bill Holman, Etienne, Charles, Gerald Wilson, Bobby Watson, Muhal Richard Abrahms, The Temptations, Donald Harrison, Steve Wilson, Eric Reed, The Chicago Sinfonietta and many others. He has performed in the pit bands of Black Ensemble Theater of Chicago, Goodman Theater, Court Theater, and Auditorium Theater.
He has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, Columbia College, and the City Colleges of Chicago where he taught applied saxophone, improvisation, and directed small and large jazz ensembles. He also served as director of jazz studies program at the Chicago Public Schools Advanced Arts Education Program in conjunction with The Herbie Hancock Institute of jazz. Jarrard is currently the clinical assistant professor of jazz bands at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is a founding board member of the Jazz Education Network and a board member of the Board of directors for the Jazz Institute of Chicago. He serves as the host of the Jazz Links Jam Session, been a faculty member of the Yamaha Bands of America Jazz Camp and Straight-Ahead Jazz Camp in addition to serving as the director of the Shell Lake Arts Center Saxophone camp. He has also appeared as an adjudicator, clinician, and performer at The University of Louisville, Coe College, Loyola University New Orleans, University of Chicago, Simpson College, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, University of Cincinnati, Purdue University, Iowa Jazz Championships, Illinois Music Educators Conference, Indiana Music Educators Conference, Iowa Music Educators Conference, Jazz Education Network National Conference to name a few.
Jarrard is a proud graduate of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music where he earned his Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies and DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois where he earned a Masters in Jazz Studies.
Mike Rocha
Four-time Grammy-nominated and globally acclaimed trumpeter and composer Mike Rocha first started playing the trumpet at age nine. While in junior high and high school, Mike performed with both the California All-State Honor Band and All-State Jazz bands, won concerto competitions, lead “The Barkin' Dawgs” dixieland band, toured Brazil with the Sacramento Youth Symphony as their principal trumpeter, and toured Japan with the Monterey Next-Gen band as their lead trumpeter.
Mike graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Trumpet Performance from the Berklee College of Music in 2007 and subsequently landed the jazz trumpet seat on the Glenn Miller Orchestra international tour. The tour lasted all of 2008 across 48 states, Canada, and Japan. After touring, Mike enjoyed a brief teaching stint at Delta College alongside director Brian Kendrick and pianist Aaron Garner.
One year later, Mike relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his Master's in Trumpet Performance and Composition from the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 2012. Notable mentors from whom Mike studied are: Larry Koonse, Darek Oles, John Fumo, Ed Carrol, Joe LaBarbara, and Paul Novros.
After completing his master's degree, Mike went on to enjoy a robust recording and performance career in Los Angeles. Mike has performed on the movie and TV soundtracks of The Color Purple (2024), Family Guy (2021), The Simpsons (2021), Legends of Tomorrow (2020), Ford v. Ferrari (2019), and more. Among the notable that Mike has played with are: Christina Aguilera, Bob Dylan, Gwen Stefani, Meghan Trainor, Panic at the Disco, Lorde, Gordon Goodwin's Big (and little!) Phat Band where he still holds the jazz soloist seat, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Nai Palm, Jeff Bernat, Postmodern Jukebox, the John Daversa Big Band, the Alan Chan Big Band, and the Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble. Mike has also performed at Coachella and the Governors Ball in New York.
While doing all of that, Mike taught trumpet and gave lectures at Occidental College, Mount San Jacinto Community College, El Camino Community College, and MiraCosta Community College, as well as serving as acting brass coach at Harvard-Westlake High School. In addition, Mike co-led the Lappit-Rocha septet, performing his original jazz compositions all over Los Angeles and culminating with the recording of their debut album, “First Take.”
