Jason Thomas Aylward is an engaging and dynamic conductor active throughout the United States. Jason has appeared in concert with the Idyllwild Arts Festival, Texas Festival Orchestra at the Round Top Festival Institute, the Twin Cities Orchestra at the 2017 NFA Conference, and in New York City with the CreArtBox ensemble.   Additionally, he has held positions as Conductor and Artistic Director for Vintage Strings, Founder and Conductor Emeritus of the Chippewa River Chamber Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor for the Round Top Festival Institute, and Le Train Bleu.  As an educator, he is currently the Director of Bands and Orchestra at Southeastern University, and previously held the position of Director of Performing Arts at Marion Military Institute. Jason has also worked with  the orchestra, opera, theatre, band, and choral programs at Central Michigan University.  

 

As a composer, Jason has composed for film, orchestras, wind ensembles, percussion ensembles, jazz ensembles, and brass chamber music.  He's premiered works with the Texas Festival Orchestra, Fredericksburg Brass Festival, A-Stage Theatre in Minneapolis, the Fargo Monday Night Big Band, the CMU Symphony Orchestra, and CMU Chamber Singers.  He won the 2016 CMU Orchestral composition competition with his work, "On The Shoulders of Running Water", and the 2017 CMU ACDA Choral composition competition with his work, "Memory, hither come". 

 

Jason's primary conducting teachers are Ransom Wilson, José-Luis Maúrtua, Peter Haberman, and Scott Jones. He also studied jazz arranging with Allen Carter.  He earned a DMA in Trumpet from the Peabody Conservatory, Masters Degrees in Orchestral Conducting and Trumpet from Central Michigan University, and a Bachelors degree in Trumpet Performance from Concordia College, in Moorhead. 

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Jason is currently the Interim Music Director for the Lakeland Symphony Orchestra, and the Director of Bands and Orchestra and trumpet professor at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL.

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