Gregory Jones

Gregory Jones is an accomplished higher-education leader with 40 years of experience advancing excellence in music performance, education, and community engagement. He has a proven record of strategic growth in enrollment, fundraising, and curricular innovation. He combines visionary leadership with collaborative decision-making to create inclusive, student-centered programs that bridge university and community. Internationally recognized as a performer, Fulbright scholar, and arts advocate, he remains committed to preparing the next generation of musicians for diverse 21st-century careers.

As Associate Dean of Engagement in the College of Music at Florida State University Dr. Jones has led efforts to create the nation’s first undergraduate degree with a focus on community music and fostered a more community-based approach to student preparation that includes the creation of a Center for Community Engagement and Leadership for the College of Music. In his previous position he created the first school of music for Purdue University in a unique partnership with industry giant Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Central to this new school were innovative music industry degrees and a full-service record label to offer students hands on experience in all facets of music production and distribution. During this tenure as Professor of Music at Truman State University in Missouri Dr. Jones led the redesign of campus-wide tenure and promotion procedures and forged and implemented imaginative courses in popular music, study abroad, interdisciplinary collaboration, and residential colleges. Jones holds music degrees from Florida State University, the University of North Texas, and the Doctorate in Music Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music. His wide variety of trumpet performance experiences include the Kansas City Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Missouri Chamber Orchestra, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Texas Baroque Ensemble, Wynton Marsalis, Allen Vizzutti, Al Jarreau, Audra McDonald, Bill Conti, Joshua Bell, the Dallas Cowboys Band, and many others. He has recorded for National Public Radio and continues to perform as a trumpet soloist and conductor. Jones has served as an Artist-in-Residence in Greece as a recipient of a Senior Fulbright Grant from the United States Information Agency and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and has been a member of the Fulbright Selection Panel in Washington, D.C.

Jones often visits Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania where he has taught and performed as part of an ongoing outreach program supported by the U.S. Embassy and the Fulbright Foundation. He also frequently tours China including performing the opening concert of the initial China Trumpet Guild Conference and trumpet festivals in Tianjin, Shijiazhuang Shenzhen, Lanzhou, Yantai and Beijing. He has appeared as a featured clinician at The Midwest Band Directors Clinic in Chicago and in festivals and music schools across the US. His book, Developing Expression in Brass Performance and Teaching is available from Routledge/Taylor and Francis and he can also be heard on Alternate Voices: Chamber Music for Trumpet.

---

View All Faculty and Staff