Mike Tomaro has been the Director of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA since 1997. This saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger and educator earned his B.S. degree in Music Education from Duquesne University and his M.A. degree in Saxophone Performance from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Prior to his appointment at Duquesne, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for seventeen years as a member of the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, a unit of the prestigious "Pershing's Own" U.S. Army Band. While a member of this group, he served as its Enlisted Musical Director and performed for Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as heads of state from around the world. He also composed and/or arranged much of the Army Blues repertoire and was featured as a soloist on several of the group's albums and CDs. Mike is a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorses Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces and ligatures.
Mike has four nationally released recordings under his own name that showcase his talents as both performer and writer - "Forgotten Dreams" (Seabreeze Jazz), "Dancing Eyes" (Seabreeze Jazz), and "Home Again" (Positive Music). His latest CD, "Nightowl Suite" was released in March 2005 on the Seabreeze Jazz label. This disc, Mike's first under his own name in ten years, features his compositions and arrangements as performed by the Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra, a group that he co-founded this past year. Additionally, Mike has also been featured on many other CDs as both performer and arranger, the most current being jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson's Grammy Award winning release, "RSVP" on the MCG Jazz label.
As a composer and arranger, Mike's music has been performed by the likes of jazz greats Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Claudio Roditi, New York Voices, Al Vizzutti, and many more, as well as high schools, colleges and universities around the world. Over eighty of his compositions and arrangements are published by Doug Beach Music, Hal Leonard Publications, and Walrus Music.
As a performer, Mike has worked with such diverse artists and groups as Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles, Michael Feinstein, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Mathis, Terence Blanchard, Louis Bellson, Terry Gibbs, Dizzy Gillespie Tribute Big Band, New York Voices, Woody Herman Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. In his hometown, he has performed with guitarist Joe Negri, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Ballet and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble in addition to leading his own small groups.
Mike is a long-time associate of the International Association for Jazz Education where he is a member of its prestigious resource team in the area of arranging and composition. He is also affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers where he has received an ASCAP Plus award for the past four years, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the Pittsburgh Jazz Society, where he is member of its board of directors. Mike is in great demand both nationally and internationally as a guest soloist, adjudicator, and clinician.
