Rate My Professor Dave Stamps

Dave Stamps is an Associate Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College, where he serves as Director of Jazz Studies and the Arts Administration program, Director of the Gustavus Jazz Ensemble, Assistant Provost of Faculty Development and Support, and Director of the John S. Kendall Center for Engaged Learning. He joined the faculty in the fall of 2014 as Assistant Professor of Music and has since advanced to his current associate professor rank. Stamps holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was one of a few UNL Othmer Fellows; a Master of Music in Jazz Composition from the University of South Florida; a Master of Music in Jazz Performance and Pedagogy from Northern Illinois University; and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Prior to Gustavus, he was Associate Director of Jazz Studies and Director Designee of the UNC Jazz Press at the University of Northern Colorado; Managing Director of the Center for Jazz Composition and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida, where he developed the Jazz Masterworks Series, the International Jazz Composers’ Symposium, and the International Jazz Arranging Competition; and at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Glenn Korff School of Music, he directed the UNL Big Band, taught jazz history and world music, and coordinated the jazz chamber music program.

An active trombonist, composer, and arranger, Stamps has performed with ensembles such as the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, Ninth & Lincoln Jazz Orchestra, Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge, Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience, Jim Widner Big Band, Wil Swindler’s Elevenet, and Luiza Zan. His performances span the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru at Festival Jazz en Lima, and Europe including the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Jazz à Vienne. As an ASCAP member, his compositions have been performed and recorded by professional and university jazz ensembles worldwide and are published through UNC Jazz Press and his own March of the Purple Penguin Music Publications. Stamps is co-founder, Vice President, and Managing Director of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC). At Gustavus, under his direction, the Jazz Ensemble has undertaken international tours to Malaysia and Singapore and regional performances. He has contributed to faculty governance as a member of the Faculty Task Force.