Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
  • Concerts
    • Complete 2025-2026 season
    • Serie Estivale De Concerts Au CCFM | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • St. James Infirmary Blues | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • 2025-26 Ticket options | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
  • Education
    • WJEC Summer Jazz Camp | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Pre-concert performances | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Canadian Jazz Composers Workshop
    • Big Band Workshops
    • Play-along charts
    • Jazz Skills Videos
    • Community Jazz Bands
  • Recordings
    • WJO CDS | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra >
      • CD Details - Connections -East Meets West | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Tidal Currents -East Meets West | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Voices | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Twisting Ways | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Suite 150 | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Suite Messiah | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Steppin’ Out | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Musician CDS | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra >
      • Bjorn Thoroddsen
      • Jeff Presslaff
      • Richard Gillis
  • About
    • Contact Us | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Who We Are | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Board of Directors | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • News | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
  • Ways to Donate
    • DONATE
    • Sponsorships
    • Your Time: Volunteer
    • Advertise with us
  • Concerts
    • Complete 2025-2026 season
    • Serie Estivale De Concerts Au CCFM | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • St. James Infirmary Blues | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • 2025-26 Ticket options | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
  • Education
    • WJEC Summer Jazz Camp | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Pre-concert performances | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Canadian Jazz Composers Workshop
    • Big Band Workshops
    • Play-along charts
    • Jazz Skills Videos
    • Community Jazz Bands
  • Recordings
    • WJO CDS | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra >
      • CD Details - Connections -East Meets West | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Tidal Currents -East Meets West | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Voices | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Twisting Ways | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Suite 150 | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Suite Messiah | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
      • CD Details - Steppin’ Out | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Musician CDS | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra >
      • Bjorn Thoroddsen
      • Jeff Presslaff
      • Richard Gillis
  • About
    • Contact Us | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Who We Are | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • Board of Directors | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
    • News | Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
  • Ways to Donate
    • DONATE
    • Sponsorships
    • Your Time: Volunteer
    • Advertise with us

Trombones
I chose the trombone because the trombone players
in the marching band got to be up front with the majorettes
(because of the slides) and I loved that!

                                                                                   Quincy Jones
​

Picture
FRANÇOIS GODÈRE is originally from Sherbrooke, Québec. A background in his church choir as a singer, an organist and a conductor provided the fertile ground in which his love for music has flourished. Studies in modern trombone followed with Mr. Ted Griffith and Mr. Peter Sullivan at McGill University, in Montréal. He has held jobs with the Victoria Symphony (B.C.), the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic (Durban, South Africa) and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). François can be heard on several MPO recordings, most notably for his solo work on Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter and Scheherazade. A multi-faceted musician, his pursuits include jazz trombone, orchestral and baroque music. He as also spent three years teaching trombone for Sistema New Brunswick before coming to Winnipeg and the joining the RCAF Band in 2014.

Picture
BRAD SHIGETA moved to New York City in the fall of 1990 via Montreal. Upon arriving in New York City to study with trombonist Jimmy Knepper, he met legendary Count Basie Orchestra trombonist Benny Powell. Through Benny, he was introduced to Clifford Jordan and was groomed by Benny to take over his chair in the Clifford Jordan Big Band. This led to many international and national tours as well as recordings and film scores with the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Dave Holland Big Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks and the Duke Ellington Orchestra under the direction of Mercer Ellington. He currently can be heard re-creating Jack Jenny and Jack Teagarden solos on the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster movie:The Aviator in the fall of 2004, as well as on the newly released CD of swing standards by Danny Aiello. In the past few years, Brad has been able to return to the roots and the music that originally attracted him to become a musician: Traditional and Swing music. He is currently in a Duke Ellington alumni small group under the direction of Barrie Lee Hall, as well as a regular member of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks (music of the 10’s, 20’s), John Gill’s Jazz Kings (traditional New Orleans music) and the Manhattan Ragtime Orchestra in New York City.

D’ARCY MCLEAN is a committed musician and educator who received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan. D’Arcy also studied in Toronto with jazz musicians Pat Labarbara and Don Johnson. Currently a teacher in Lac du Bonnet, D’Arcy finds time to travel to Winnipeg to perform with local ensembles such as the Ron Paley Big Band and the WJO. His work with these groups has allowed him the opportunity to appear with artists such as Louie Bellson, Bill Watrous, Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Foster and Guido Basso.

Picture
JEFF PRESSLAFF is a pianist, trombonist, and composer/arranger has become a mainstay of the Winnipeg jazz scene since moving from New York in 1997. Born in Manhattan, educated at Princeton and Wesleyan Universities, he has had a varied career working with many distinguished musicians, including Benny Carter, Bill Barron, Ed Blackwell, Roswell Rudd, Sheila Jordan, Bob Brookmeyer, Howard Levy, Stanley Jordan, Bill Watrous, George Garzone, Steve Nelson, Edgar Meyer, Sim Cain, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Josh Groban and many others. In 2004, he was named Jazz Winnipeg's Musician of the Year. Jeff is featured as a player, writer and/or producer on many recordings. The Complete Rebirth of the Cool was nominated for a 2014 WCMA Jazz Album of the Year award; Rhapsodies by Two, an album of keyboard duets with Will Bonness was nominated for a 2013 WCMA Jazz Album of the Year award; Red Goddess, a piano trio album of all original tunes garnered a 2009 Best Instrumental Jazz nomination from Just Plain Folks, the world's largest music awards.

Picture

​JOEL GREEN Prior to moving to Winnipeg, trombonist Joel Green spent a decade as a freelance
performer and teacher in Toronto. A graduate of Humber College and the University of Toronto,
he studied with renowned trombonists Alastair Kay and Gordon Wolfe. While freelancing in
Toronto, his work included performances with personalities such as Frank Sinatra Jr., Michael
Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Gladys Knight, Colin James, Roger Hodgson and Frankie Valli. In the course
of his freelance career, Joel has played on countless recordings in a wide variety of genres and for
major television and radio broadcasters. An experienced pit orchestra musician, he has performed
in dozens of musicals, including South Pacific, 9 to 5, Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof, The Full Monty and Dreamgirls. Joel has appeared as a soloist with classical and contemporary ensembles and has
performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra
London, the Kingston Symphony, Contact Contemporary Music and Array Music Ensemble. In 2012, Joel joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Band where he is currently a member of Command Brass, the only full time brass quintet in the Canadian Armed Forces.

    To receive information about Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra events sign up here.

Subscribe to Newsletters

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra is Generously Funded by:

Funding assistance provided by the Manitoba government. Aide financière accordée par le gouvernement du Manitoba.
Logo of the Winnipeg Arts Council
Logo of the Winnipeg Foundation
Logo of the Manitoba Arts Council
Logo for FACTOR: The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings
Logo of the Canada Council for the Arts
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Logo for the SOCAN Foundation

Education Sponsors:

Logo of Long & McQuade Musical Instruments
Logo of Jazz Winnipeg
Logo of the Desautels Faculty of Music, U of M
Logo of the Manitoba Band Association
Picture
The Play-Along App project is supported by the Government of Canada’s Healthy Communities Initiative.
Picture
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.
Nous reconnaissons l'appui financier du gouvernement du Canada. 

Concert Sponsors:
Picture
Logo of the Assiniboine Credit Union

Hotel Sponsor: 

Picture

Radio Sponsors
Picture
logo of Nostalgia Radio, 93.7 CJNU

Special Event Supporters
Logo of Neil Bardal Funeral Centre
Logo of Frontera Wines

Supporters
Logo of Jonathan's Farm Food Share
Logo of McNally Robison Booksellers

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra welcomes and shares its performance and creation of music - a universal language to all people irrespective of culture, race, sexuality, ability, language and gender.
Music is an agent of hope. A dynamic and valuable device that helps us to heal and to bring us together. The First Peoples of Canada understood this and used music to reunite, resolve and reconcile.  In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that WJO activities take place on Treaty Territory – land that was maintained and earnestly cared for by Indigenous peoples before European settlement.  Manitoba is the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and is the homeland of the Métis Nation.  We acknowledge that Winnipeg benefits daily from Treaty 3 water that comes from Shoal Lake 40.  It is with sincere sentiment that we recognize the mistakes of our recent and distant past.  In working towards a Canada that benefits us all, we commit to seeking a greater understanding of Canada’s diverse cultural relationships through continued work with Indigenous communities; we commit to live in ways that honour and respect the treaties that were made on these territories; and we commit to stewarding the land in harmony for all who will come after us.
- Please refrain from wearing any fragrances or scented products as other patrons are allergic to them.
- Your likeness may be captured at this event. Attending this event implies your permission for your image to be used in marketing or promotional purposes.
- Please do not attend if you do not feel well. Call the box office at 204-632-5299 to arrange to go to another concert.

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra  / Box 68114, RPO Osborne Village, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 2V9
Main: 204-421-9398 / [email protected]     Box Office: 204-632-5299 / [email protected]