Jazz Festival

Dr. Jason M. Hausback serves as Professor of Trombone at Missouri State University and is also the Interim Director of Jazz Studies. Prior to his arrival at MSU, Jason was active as a teacher and a performer in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, teaching low brass at Eastfield College (Mesquite, TX), and Brookhaven College (Farmer’s Branch, TX). While at North Texas he was both a classical and jazz Teaching Fellow and directed the U-Tubes, who won the 2010 Eastern Trombone Workshop National Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition. He also issued their first CD entitled “The U-Tubes” in the spring of 2011. Additionally, Jason was a member of the internationally-acclaimed One O’Clock Lab Band and was on the recording “Lab 2009,” which was nominated for two Grammy awards.

In 2008, Jason was the winner of the Eastern Trombone Workshop National Classical Bass Trombone Solo Competition, as well as the ITA Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition. His trombone quartet “Bell Street Four” also won the 2008 ITA Quartet competition. Additionally, he enjoys travel and has had the opportunity to perform across the United States, as well as in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Jason is active as a freelancer throughout the mid-south region of the US and performs regularly with The Lone Star Wind Orchestra (TX), REbL Trombone Quartet (TX), Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (AR), The Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Missouri Jazz Orchestra (MO), and Fountain City Brass Band (KS). He has filled in with several notable orchestras including the East Texas Symphony, The Tulsa Symphony, The Kansas City Symphony, The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Opera Orchestra. He has performed solo and quartet recitals at universities and conferences throughout the US as well as in Colombia and Spain. He has also performed in the Southeast Trombone Symposium Professors Choir, Trombonanza (Argentina) and in featured ensembles at several different International Trombone Festivals.

As a jazz musician, Jason has had the opportunity to perform as a sideman with many renowned jazz musicians including Dave Brubeck, Wayne Bergeron, Rufus Reid, James Carter, John Daversa, Dennis DeBlasio, John Fedchock, Jiggs Wigham, Marshall Gilkes, Lyle Mays, and John Mosca, among others. He has had the opportunity to perform at the Jazz Education Network Conference, the Wichita Jazz Festival, Blues Alley, Birdland, the Catalina Club, the World Saxophone Congress (Thailand), as well as at many of the acclaimed jazz festivals in Europe including Vienne, Umbria, North Sea, and Montreux. Jason also has an interest in early music and enjoys this diverse and challenging repertoire. He plays the tenor and bass sackbuts and performed at the 2007 Boston Early Music Festival and at the 2008 Misiones de Chiquitos Baroque Music Festival in Bolivia. His DMA dissertation was on the sonatas of Dario Castello, a seventeenth-century Italian composer who wrote extensively for the sackbut.

Jason has served on the staff of many prominent high school marching bands in Texas, including Marcus HS (2007-2015), Texas 5A/6A State champions five consecutive times. He has worked with several drum and bugle corps, including Capital Sound, the Madison Scouts, Spirit of Atlanta, the Boston Crusaders, Phantom Regiment, and most recently, The Crossmen. Jason has also been active as an adjudicator for marching band, solo/ensemble and jazz competitions. Most notably, he had the honor of judging several International Trombone Association competitions, as well as for the International Women’s Brass Conference, the American

Trombone Workshop, the Southeast Trombone Symposium, and the Big 12 Trombone Conference. Jason was President of the Missouri Music Teachers Association (2022-24) and formerly served as Vice President, as well as State Chair for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) from 2015-2022. He is also the faculty advisor for the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Iota Rho Chapter.

Students of Jason have placed or won numerous competitions, including MTNA (National Winners), MMTA (Winners), The North Texas Low Brass Camp Collegiate Competition (Winner), International Trombone Association (Alternate) Big 12 Trombone Conference (Finalists), and the American Trombone Workshop (Finalists). Recent graduates of Missouri State University have gone on to assistantships at Columbus State University, The University of North Texas, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, and the University of Central Arkansas. The Missouri State University Trombone Ensemble was founded by Jason in 2015 and has had the honor of performing at the Midwest Trombone and Euphonium Conference (Charleston, IL), the St. Louis Low Brass Collective Gala Concert (St. Louis, MO), the Missouri Music Teachers Association Conference (Osage Beach, MO), Tulsa Low Brass Day (Tulsa, OK), Get Trombonafide (Wichita, KS), the Big 12 Trombone Conference (Lubbock, TX), the American Trombone Workshop (Ft. Myer, VA), and the International Trombone Festival (Conway, AR).

Jason holds the BM in Trombone Performance degree from the University of Wisconsin: Madison, and the MM and DMA degrees in Trombone Performance from the University of North Texas. His primary teachers include Rose Lewis, Dr. William Richardson, Dr. Vern Kagarice, Jan Kagarice, and Tony Baker. Jason is a S.E. Shires Performing Artist.

Erica von Kleist