Rate My Professor Tim Ishii

Timothy J. Ishii is a Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, a position he has held since 2004. He also serves as Jazz Studies Area Coordinator in the Department of Music. Ishii earned a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas. Specializing in jazz studies and saxophone, he has led the UTA Jazz Orchestra to notable achievements, including a performance at the Texas Music Educators Conference in San Antonio in 2007 and the “Gene Hall” award as the Outstanding Collegiate Band at the University of North Texas/City of Addison Jazz Festival in 2009, selected from taped auditions nationwide. Under his direction, the orchestra has performed internationally in Mexico City, Germany, Hawaii, Kansas, and extensively throughout Texas and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Ishii is an accomplished clinician who has conducted numerous high school and college honor bands in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Oregon. He is Past President of the Texas Jazz Educators Association and Co-Music Director of the Hawaii Jazz Institute, a collaboration between the University of Texas at Arlington and the Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Highlights include a 2014 guest artist appearance with the Iolani High School Jazz Band in Kobe, Japan, at the Konan Boys High School Winter Jazz Festival and Konan Women’s University; the orchestra's 2015 performance aboard the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor; and faculty performances at the 2015 Maui Jazz Festival. In 2016, he delivered big band clinics at the Hochschule Fur Musik in Detmold, Germany, and a master class at Haus Die Musik, while facilitating study abroad exchanges in Stockholm, Sweden, with the Royal College of Music and participating in the International Jazz Education Festival at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The UTA Jazz Area continues outreach in Hawaii, Sweden, Germany, and China, sponsoring the Eddie Gomez Trio in Residence each semester. Ishii maintains an active freelance and clinician schedule as an Artist/Clinician for Conn-Selmer and D’Addario.