Fred Irby, III
JAZZ CLINIC MASTER CLASS ARTIST
Fred Irby, III is a native of Mobile, Alabama and a graduate of Grambling State University (LA) and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. As Professor of Music at Howard University in Washington, DC , he is the Coordinator of Instrumental Music , trumpet instructor and Director of the internationally acclaimed Howard University Jazz Ensemble (HUJE). Mr. Irby is the Principal Trumpet of the Kennedy Center Opera House Musical Theater Orchestra and is in demand as a trumpet artist, conductor, clinician, adjudicator and consultant. He served as Musical Director for the Washington Ballet in 2004 during the 17 th International Ballet Festival in Havana, Cuba. In 2013, Mr. Irby and The Howard University Jazztet were invited by the U. S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal to represent the USA in the international St. Louis Jazz Festival, the largest jazz festival in Africa. He has performed in the orchestras for the 87 th , 88 th, 89 th, and 90 th Academy Awards Gala (Oscars), 56 th Primetime Emmy Awards, Dancing with the Stars, America’s Got Talent, The Gershwin Awards, The Horatio Alger Awards and was principal trumpet for the cast album of the Stephen Sondheim musical “BOUNCE”. He was designated a Lowell Mason Fellow by the National Association for Music Education (2009), received the 2009 Disney Performing Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching Jazz, inducted into the Grambling State University “Alumni Hall of Fame” (2008), inducted into the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville “Alumni Hall of Fame” (2016), received an Achievement Award in Jazz Education (2008) from downbeat magazine, received the Ronnie Wells Jazz Service Award during the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by the late pianist and HUJE alum Geri Allen) during the 2016 DC Jazz Festival Gala at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Irby holds active membership in the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, NAfME: The National Association for Music Education, ITG: The International Trumpet Guild, ICSOM: The International Association of Symphony and Opera Musicians, the American Federation of Musicians and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Jazz Arts Institute (WJAI) and the International Women’s Brass Conference (IWBC) Professor Irby has been a member of the Howard University Department of Music faculty since 1974.