North Carolina State University

Mr. Wes Parker joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 2006 as the Director of Jazz Studies. He directs the jazz ensembles, coaches jazz combos, teaches jazz history, and serves as the assistant director of the “Power Sound of The South Marching Band.” Mr. Parker holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, a Master of Music in performance from The University of Southern Mississippi, and is currently completing his dissertation for the Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance from the same university.

His principle teachers include Marta Hofacre, Kevin Chiarizzio, Larry Panella, and Richard Perry. Parker has performed with orchestras and freelanced in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. In 2002 he performed with Southern Miss’s jazz trombone ensemble the “HubBones” at the Eastern Trombone Workshop in Washington D.C. as the winner of the National Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition.

While at Southern Miss he served as an interim professor of trombone in the spring of 2005, performed with the Southern Arts faculty brass quintet and directed the Southern Miss Trombone Choir. As a teaching assistant in the Jazz Studies program at Southern Miss, Parker was responsible for coaching jazz combos in addition to directing the Jazz Lab II big band. In March of 2005, he performed Richard Peaslee’s Arrows of Time with the Southern Miss Wind Ensemble.