Jason Emory, MM - Orchestra Director

Mr. Emory is a native of Black Mountain, NC and graduated in 1999 from Charles D. Owen High School. He received his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northern Arizona University in 2004 where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was a Golden Key Honor Society inductee. After undergrad, Mr. Emory attended graduate school as a teaching assistant at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music studying percussion performance with an emphasis in jazz and commercial music earning his Master of Music Performance degree in 2006. Mr. Emory graduated from DU with high honors sporting a 3.97 G.P.A. and receiving the “Outstanding Student in Jazz Studies,” “I.A.J.E. Outstanding Musicianship,” “Downbeat” and “Outstanding Graduate Recital” awards for 2006.

In 2022, Mr. Emory was appointed as the Orchestra Director at Durant High School, and is in his 5th year of teaching in Hillsborough County and 18th year overall as a music educator. Before moving to the Tampa area in 2019, he worked as a high school band director in Southern Colorado and his students and ensembles received statewide recognition. Mr. Emory’s marching bands were perennial state semi-finalists, and his orchestras, concert bands and jazz ensembles regularly earned Superior (Division I) ratings at festivals and Music Performance Assessments. Mr. Emory also had a brief stint as an educational representative and apprentice repair technician for the Colorado Institute of Musical Instrument Technology(CIOMIT). He was responsible for providing support and instrument repair services to school band and orchestra programs across Southern Colorado in addition to his duties as Interim Director of Bands at Colorado State University-Pueblo, where he directed the Wind Ensemble, University Band and Thunderwolf Marching Band and taught undergraduate conducting.
 
Mr. Emory performs regularly as a professional percussionist with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Tampa Brass Band. Before relocating to Florida, Mr. Emory performed frequently in the Southern Colorado Region. He was the Principal Timpanist/Percussionist for the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra, the Rocky Mountain Wind Symphony, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and a sub for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Principal Percussionist of the Trade Winds, a professional wind ensemble that makes annual promotional recordings of new music for Excelcia Music, RBC, Kendor and Wingert-Jones. Commercially, Mr. Emory freelances on drumset in the Tampa area and has performed with artists such as: Don Juceam, Ken Miller, Nelson Rangell, Eric Gunnison, Maria Schneider, Greg Gisbert, Javon Jackson, Darren Kramer and Al Hood. His primary instructors and influences in conducting and music education are Dr. Daniel Schmidt, H. Robert Reynolds, Dr. Jack Stamp and Professor Ray Cramer. 
 
In his limited free time, Mr. Emory enjoys many typical Floridian activities such as fishing, spending time at the beach and cheering on the Tampa Bay Rays. His favorite pastime, however, is spending time with his three little boys, 8-year-old Lenny, 6-year-old Oliver, 4-month old Bennett, and beautiful wife Stacie.