Director of MacJazz and Macalester Jazz and Pop Combos

griffith@macalester.edu

Joan Griffith is known in the Midwest as a teacher, performer and composer. She has toured and recorded extensively as a classical and jazz guitarist, a bassist and a mandolinist. Her jazz CD, "Enter You, Enter Love," featuring many of her own compositions, was chosen as one of the top ten best recordings for 1996 by KBEM. Her choral composition "Sweet Noel" won the 1998 Christmas Carol Contest sponsored by the American Composer's Forum and the Plymouth Music Series.

Joan directs the MacJazz and Macalester Jazz and Pop Combos and is also a studio instructor, teaching electric bass, electric guitar, mandolin, and jazz improvisation. She is also the head of the jazz studies department at the University of St. Thomas, an instructor of guitar and bass at the College of St. Catherine and roster artist in jazz for COMPAS, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Young Audiences. Her performances on mandolin include the Minnesota Orchestra's 1999 performance and recording of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" under the direction of Eiji Oue, as soloist with the South Dakota Symphony on their premiere recording "Journey to the Badlands" and as a featured artist in the chamber music series of Minnesota Orchestra's SommerFest.