The Sound of Jazz Festival

Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Jeff Chang is a dedicated educator who has been shaping young minds since 2007. His passion for music education has earned him significant acclaim, including being named a quarterfinalist for the prestigious 2025 Music Educator Award from the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum. Under his leadership, the Decatur High School Jazz Band earned an Outstanding High School Large Ensemble award in the 47th Annual Downbeat Student Music Awards.

Chang currently serves as the director of bands at Curtis High School in University Place, Wash. In the fall of 2024, he also joined the faculty at the University of Puget Sound as the director of the Jazz Orchestra. Additionally, he is the jazz director for the Birch Bay Band Directors Workshop.

Beyond his teaching and leadership roles, Chang is an active performer and clinician both in the Pacific Northwest and internationally. Through his artistry, he continues to inspire students and musicians with his deep knowledge and talent.

Kate Olson is an improviser, saxophonist, and music educator based in Seattle, Wash. Since moving to Seattle in 2010, she has done her best to infiltrate the local, regional and international improvised music scenes. She can be heard performing with her own projects KO SOLO and KO Ensemble, and as a collaborator with the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and Electric Circus (led by Wayne Horvitz), Birch Pereira and the Gin Joints, Battlestar Kalakala (formerly West Seattle Soul/the Pulsations), the Oscillators, and with such Seattle staples as the Seattle Men’s and Women’s Choruses, Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and cabaret producers Can Can Presents and Verlaine & McCann. 

Olson has a BA in Music (Jazz Emphasis) from the University of Wyoming and an MM in Improvisation from the University of Michigan.

David Joyner has over forty years experience as a pianist, vocalist, composer, arranger, program producer, conductor, published scholar, public lecturer, and educator. His areas of expertise include performing as well as teaching jazz history, jazz theory, and both vocal and piano jazz improvisation. He is an active freelance musician and owner of DDJ Music Services. For 18 years he taught at Pacific Lutheran University, where he was Professor of Music in history of jazz, Director of University Jazz Ensemble, Director of Northwest Jazz Honor Band, and Artistic Director and performer for the Jazz Under the Stars concert series. Prior to his time at Pacific Lutheran University, he was Professor of Music in the jazz studies division at the University of North Texas for fourteen years.

Joyner earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Memphis, a Master of Music from University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and a Ph.D in ethnomusicology from the University of Memphis. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where he embraced jazz and became a major player in the Memphis jazz and commercial music scene. He has performed for legends such as Bob Hope, Danny Thomas, Henry Mancini, and Bob Newhart. He also worked full time as a staff vocalist at a broadcast music production house which produced radio jingles and corporate show music used throughout the world. He has adjudicated jazz festivals across the United States, including the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho, and Washington. 

Joyner enjoys conducting jazz workshops for music directors and students. And he loves presenting public lectures, especially for senior communities on topics such as popular music of the swing era, the blues, and music of Tin Pan Alley.