Jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Dan St. Marseille employs a warm tone and melodic approach, and has won praise from jazz critics worldwide, working with many major jazz and commercial artists and bands. Dan is the Program Director of the Music Education/Instrumental Performance Division and Director of Jazz Studies at California Baptist University in Riverside, California. Dan’s recordings are heard internationally on jazz radio and have been the subject of articles in such publications as Downbeat, JazzTimes, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and Japan’s Jazz Critic magazine. Dan’s recordings have received four-star ratings in the 3rd edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz, The Experts Guide to the Best Jazz. Dan is a sought-after Jazz performer and director, a Yamaha Performing Artist, and a D’Addario Woodwind Performing Artist. In addition to performances on numerous local and national tours, Dan has performed in Europe, Canada, and many jazz clubs and festivals, including a headline performance at the Coleman Hawkins Festival in Topeka, Kansas. In addition, in May of 2001, Dan was the music director for an international event entitled Clickin’ with Clax at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2019, Dan received an Outstanding Arts Educator Award from the Orange County Department of Education, recognizing his innovative teaching strategies, visionary arts curriculum, and positive impact on student achievement at the Orange County School of the Arts. Beyond performing, Dan has established himself as a jazz composer of distinction, with his Claxography, written for renowned jazz photographer William Claxton, which was chosen as the title of Claxton’s book of photographs in which Dan also appears. In addition, Dan is the former director of the Instrumental Music Conservatory at the celebrated Orange County School of the Arts, where he created the nationally recognized Garn Family Jazz Studies Program and has held positions as jazz ensemble director at Irvine Valley College and California State University Fullerton (CSUF). For thirty years, he was on the faculty serving as Assistant Director for the Idyllwild Arts Summer Jazz Intensive, where he taught classes in improvisation, music theory, and jazz ensemble. He has been a guest artist and clinician at various schools abroad. Dan’s students are recipients of many notable awards and honors, including Downbeat Student Awards, Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards, Monterey Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and Women in Jazz Combo, Jazz Band of America, Young Arts, and numerous outstanding musicianship awards at major jazz festivals.
