ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Diane Richardson holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California. She completed her Masters of Music at The Boston Conservatory and her undergraduate degree in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music. Dr. Richardson has led and arranged repertoire for Mashandi Jhaz, a four-piece, all-female ensemble, and has traveled as lead singer with top-40 bands Eli and SplitImage. She has also been a frequent participant in the Annual Women in Music festival as has served as host of “About the Arts,” a weekly cable television program in Boston (and a community cable arts-award nominee). She has performed with Wayne Naus’ Heart & Fire and has been a guest artist for Mobius, the Dilloway-Thomas House, and African-Heritage Museum. 

Dr. Richardson’s recording projects include Singus Mingus: A Jazz Lieder Program (a tribute to bassist Charles Mingus); The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington; and African American Spirituals and Arts Songs. Her compositions include a setting of the poetry of Langston Hughes to jazz. She performs in a jazz duet with Boston artist and vocalist Lynn Doran and currently teaches at Berklee College of Music and Tufts University specializing in jazz, pop, rhythm-and-blues, and vocal technique.

Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy is Chairman of the Jazz Studies Department and Professor of Music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California (USC) and is Past President of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Prior to his appointment at USC he served as Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC. He has served as Professor of Music and chair of the Afro-African American Studies Department and served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota. In 1997, Dr. McCurdy served as Visiting Professor at Maria-Sklodowska-Curie University in Lublin, Poland.

Dr. McCurdy is a Yamaha performing artist and in demand as a guest clinician, soloist, speaker, and director of honor jazz ensembles and choirs throughout the United States and Canada. He is a consultant to the Grammy Foundation educational programs, including serving as director of the National Grammy Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He served as Director of the Walt Disney All-American Summer College Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Singers in Florida for seven years and continues to serve as a consultant for the college program. His performance credits include Joe Williams, Rosemary Clooney, Leslie Uggams, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Ramsey Lewis, Mercer Ellington, Dr. Billy Taylor, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, and Dianne Reeves. He recently released the CD Once Again for the First Time (INNOVA), is author of Meet the Great Jazz Legends (Alfred Publishing), and is co-author of the vocal jazz improvisation series Approaching the Standards (Warner Bros.). He received his undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas.

(Biographies on the pianist, bassist, and percussionist will be forthcoming closer to the residency.)