Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble

For the past three decades, the Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble has been the flagship group for the Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts, home of Canada’s largest and most diverse jazz studies program. This band has a long history of excellence, including recordings, concerts, and clinics with world-renowned artists, such as Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Holland, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Steve Gadd, Kurt Elling, Mike Stern, Chris Potter, and Dave Liebman, among others.

In 2008, they staged a hugely successful concert tour of England, where they were proclaimed “the finest big band heard in the last 15 years” after their London concert. November 2009 saw them do a triumphant seven-city tour of British Columbia. Led by program head Denny Christianson, this group has developed some of Canada’s most elite professional musicians.

The Humber College Music Program, founded in 1972, has consistently produced successful commercial and jazz musicians on the Toronto scene and throughout Canada. With a student body which has grown to over 350, a faculty of 12 full-time and 45 part-time, and offering over 42 student ensembles, the music program has become the largest and most diverse of its kind in the country. Humber provides a faculty of top professionals in jazz, theatre, television, film, commercials, and pop music.

Denny Christianson – Director Trumpeter, flugelhornist, arranger, composer, bandleader and educator, Denny Christianson is the director of music at Humber College and the leader of the Denny Christianson Big Ban. He has performed and/or recorded with many jazz greats including Pepper Adams, Diane Shurr, Tony Bennett, Michel Legrand, Bill Holman, Carmen McRae, Ed Shaughnessy, Hubert Laws, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Benny Carter, Steve Gadd, Sweets Edison. Bobby Bryant, Kenny Drew, Mose Allison and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

During a studio career spanning 26 years in Los Angeles and Montreal, Mr. Christianson recorded over 200 albums with pop greats such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, to name a few. He spent several years on TV with Sammy Davis, Jr., and recorded numerous movie soundtracks, as well as hundreds of commercials.

He has composed a full-length musical and been music director for numerous TV shows and major telethons. His seven albums, as leader, have received eight Juno and Felix nominations.