Melissa Gardiner
Jazz instruction
Recently named in the top 3 as a DownBeat Rising Star Trombonist, Melissa Gardiner has been described by Curtis Fuller as technically creative and emotionally powerful, with an improvisational voice that draws listeners in through raw, expressive storytelling.
Throughout her career, she has performed with several notable artists including Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Geri Allen, Wycliffe Gordon, Steve Turre, Gerald Wilson, Patti Austin, Tia Fuller, Ingrid Jensen, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave Matthews Band, and Vulfpeck.
As an active bandleader, she has released three albums, Transitions (2011), Second Line Syracuse (2016), and Empowered (2019), which features prominent jazz artists Tia Fuller and Ingrid Jensen. Gardiner has received multiple honors as a bandleader, including two Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMYS) for Best Jazz Album and the Grand Prize at the International Jazz Competition in Bucharest, Romania (2018).
Currently based in Syracuse, NY, Gardiner is the founder of the Syracuse chapter of Silver Arrow Band, part of an international entertainment company where she produces events, contracts musicians, and performs regularly for private events throughout the region.
In addition to her active performance career, Gardiner is the instrumental music teacher at the STEAM Regional High School and she holds teaching credentials at Le Moyne College, Syracuse University and Cornell University.
Gardiner has been recognized as an outstanding educator with induction into the Liverpool High School Fine Arts Hall of Fame (2018) and the SAMMYS Hall of Fame (2019).
She received her BFA from the University of Michigan and her MM from The Juilliard School. She is a BAC artist and performs on a BAC Custom Trombone.