Kansas City Kansas Community College
Kansas City, KS
John Stafford II is currently Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities, and Co-Coordinator of the Music Department at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Professor Stafford was a 2015 recipient of the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award for outstanding teaching and leadership at the community college level. He is also the 2020 recipent of the Henry Louis Award for Teaching Excellence (KCKCC's Faculty of the Year Award). He has also received two teaching awards from KCKCC for Recruitment and Teaching Excellence. He holds degrees from Millikin University, Bowling Green State University, and has done additional doctoral studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Among his professional activities, Stafford currently serves as the National Repertoire and Resources Vocal Jazz Chair for ACDA. He has previously served as the Jazz Chair of the Kansas Choral Directors Association and Commercial/Contemporary Music Chair of the Southwestern Division of the ACDA and he is also a member of NAfME, JEN, and ACDA. He has arrangements published by the Lorenz Corporation, Anchor Music Publications and First Step Records. Since 2014, Prof. Stafford has served as the choral director at Community Christian Church (architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright) in Kansas City, MO. In June 2022, he gave his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall as part of MidAmerica Productions, performing Justin Binek's Missa Lucis. 2022-23 engagements includes conducting the 2022 New York and 2023 Oklahoma All-State Jazz Choirs, being a guest clinican at the Millikin University Vocal Festival and the Northern Arizona University Madrigal/Jazz Festival, and conducting a choral residency in London, England as a part of Mid-America Productions.
His group, The Standard, is the award-winning contemporary vocal jazz ensemble from KCKCC. They have been invited to perform at the national conferences of JEN, ACDA, and NAfME. The Standard has also been selected to perform at the Southwestern Divisional Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, Kansas Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop, the New York City Jazz Festival at Jazz at the Lincoln Center and received a number #1 rating at the University of Northern Colorado/Greeley Jazz Festival. Within the last six years, members of The Standard have won sixteen DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards for Outstanding Performance (for Large Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Blues/Pop/Rock and Latin Jazz Ensemble), Live Engineered Recording, Studio Engineered Recording, and Outstanding Soloist in the Community College category. Two of those DownBeat awards included being the 2020 Community College Winner for Blues/Pop/Rock Ensemble and 2020 Community College Co-Winner for Large Vocal Jazz Ensemble. In the spring of 2023, the ensemble will release their third full-length studio album, entitled Rain. The group has shared the stage with such highly acclaimed artists as Take 6, New York Voices, m-pact and Carmen Bradford.
Saturday, January 7, 2023
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM US EST
Saturday, January 7, 2023
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM US EST
Saturday, January 7, 2023
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM US EST