2025 Nebraska All-State Jazz BandPAGE QUICK LINKS
ALL-STATE JAZZ BAND CONDUCTOR BIODr. Eric Richards – composer, arranger, conductor, Eric is a regularly commissioned composer and arranger. Recent commissions include pieces for the USAF Heritage of America Band, UNC Jazz Lab Band I, UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band, Southeast Asia Symphonic Youth Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, Hall High School Concert Jazz Band (West Hartford, CT), the Government of Thailand, and the Aiken Community Band (Aiken, SC). Eric Richards is the Director of Bands and Jazz Studies at Sheridan College where he serves as Music Director of the SC Symphony Band, Jazz Ensemble, Jazztet, Concert Brass Ensemble, Trombone Choir, and teaches applied brass, composition, History of Jazz, Keyboard Theory, Music Fundamentals. He also serves as the Music Director and Lead Trombone of the Whitney Center Jazz Orchestra, Sheridan College’s professional big band-in-residence. From 2008 – 2015, he served as tenured Associate Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies in the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he led the Composition Program. At UNL, he mentored first-year through doctoral students in applied composition (classical and jazz/vernacular styles), and organized and led the award-winning UNL Jazz Orchestra “2.0”, an innovative 21st Century jazz ensemble combining traditional big band instrumentation with strings, horn, and percussion. He is the recipient of the 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at UNL. Eric has led the Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming All State High School Jazz Ensembles as well as the Southern California Honor Jazz All-Stars in concert performance at the 2018 NAMM Convention in Anaheim. His work as an educator is energized by his professional practice as a widely performed composer/arranger, conductor, and instrumentalist. Eric’s music has been heard on six continents in performances and recordings in major concert venues across North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and India. 2025 ALL-STATE JAZZ BAND REPERTOIRE
2025 AUDITION MATERIALSNMEA will utilize the services of Festival Scores to collect student auditions. Auditions will include:
*Special note for Drummers: ALL drummers will submit the auxiliary percussion audition excerpt instead of having a separate audition auxiliary percussion. the judge will select a primary drum set player who will mostly play drum kit and possibly some auxiliary percussion, and a secondary drum set player who will mostly play auxiliary percussion and some drum it. The following audition materials for the 2025 All-State Jazz Band are broken down by instrument. Click each link to download the audition materials. VIBRAPHONE
TRUMPET
TENOR TROMBONE
BASS TROMBONE
PIANO
GUITAR
DRUM KIT & AUX PERCUSSION
BASS (ACOUSTIC OR ELECTRIC)
BARI SAX
TENOR SAX
ALTO SAX |