Home Again: Fred Sturm Returning to Lawrence University to Direct Jazz Studies Program

APPLETON, WIS. -- Imagine being the New York Mets and luring superstar shortstop Derek Jeter away from the crosstown rival Yankees. That's a bit how Lawrence University's Kathleen Murray is feeling these days.

Scoring a musical coup of sorts, Murray, dean of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, announced that Fred Sturm has been named director of Lawrence's jazz studies program, succeeding Ken Schaphorst, who left Lawrence last August to become chair of the jazz department at the New England Conservatory. Schaphorst had joined the Lawrence conservatory in 1991 as Sturm's successor.

Sturm will return in September to his alma mater and the department he helped found and directed from 1977-91. Since leaving Lawrence in 1991, he has directed the jazz ensemble and studio orchestra at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

"Fred has been enormously successful in what is undeniably one of the premier jazz programs in the country," said Murray. "To be able to hire someone of Fred's experience and stature is certainly a boon to our students. He brings a very impressive and respected profile that can only enhance what is an already strong jazz studies program at Lawrence.

"When Fred was here originally, he enjoyed tremendous popularity and admiration, not only from his colleagues in the conservatory, but also throughout the Fox Valley community at large," Murray added. "I had the good fortune of working with Fred for five years and count him as a good friend and a treasured colleague. I couldn't be more thrilled about his return to Lawrence this fall."

Born in Woodstock, Ill., the son of a Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist father and an operatic contralto mother, Sturm grew up in Wisconsin, graduating from Oconomowoc High School before enrolling at Lawrence, where he earned a bachelor of music degree in 1973.

In 1971, as part of a student-designed project, Sturm, a 19-year-old sophomore at the time, conducted the first Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble, paving the way for the establishment of what would eventually become the Lawrence jazz studies department.

"Lawrence magnetized me as a high school kid and has been tugging me homeward ever since," said Sturm, 50, who plays the trombone and keyboards. "As a student, the attraction was those larger-than-life professors like my hero Freddie Schroeder. As a young teacher, it was the magic of constant possibility revealed by my students, my colleagues, my bosses. And now, as the thief returns to the scene of his many crimes, it's the lure of serving a wonderful administration, rubbing elbows with beloved faculty accomplices and once again experiencing that unique breed of 'Lawrence kid.'

"To me, Lawrence is that place that never leaves you," Sturm added. "I'm thrilled to be headed home."

After earning his bachelor's degree from Lawrence, he pursued graduate study at the University of North Texas and performed in the renowned "One O'Clock Lab Band." In 1974, along with noted pianist/composer and fellow Lawrence graduate John Harmon, Sturm co-founded the contemporary jazz nonet known as "Matrix," which performed and recorded throughout the United States.

He succeeded Harmon, Lawrence's first jazz studies director, in 1977. Three years later he introduced the Jazz Celebration Weekend, a two-day festival that is still conducted each fall, bringing such notable jazz legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan and Diane Schuur to the Lawrence campus. He directed Lawrence's jazz studies program for 14 years before leaving for the Eastman School of Music, where he had completed a master's degree in jazz studies in 1984.

At Eastman, Sturm directs the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, conducts the 70-piece Eastman Studio Orchestra and coordinates the jazz composition and arranging program. Under his leadership, the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and Studio Orchestra has received Down Beat magazine's outstanding collegiate jazz ensemble award seven times.

Nominated for a Grammy award in 1998, Sturm has composed and arranged works that have been performed by a "who's who" of jazz legends, among them Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Phil Woods and Dianne Reeves. His works are currently in print with eight music publishers and have been issued on Concord Jazz, RCA and Warner Brothers Records.

Sturm is the author of three texts: "Changes Over Time: The Evolution of Jazz Arranging (Advance Music): "Kenny Wheeler: Collected Works on ECM" (Universal Edition); and "Maria Schneider: Evanescence" (Universal Edition), and has written the jazz aural training method entitled "All Ears," which is widely used by music educators throughout the United States.

He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music and the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund.