Mike Steinel is a jazz trumpeter, pianist, composer, and arranger. An internationally recognized jazz educator, Mike is the author of the highly acclaimed Essential Elements for Jazz Ensemble and Building a Jazz Vocabulary. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe appearing as a soloist at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), and Jazz Education Network (JEN) international conventions, and at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. He has recorded with the Frank Mantooth Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Quintet, and performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Don Ellis, Bill Evans, Zoot Sims, Jerry Bergonzi, and others. He can be heard as a featured soloist on the 2015 release by the Mike Waldrop Big Band.
Mike has served as Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT), since 1987. He has been a faculty member of the Clark Terry Jazz Camp, the Jamey Aebersold Improvisation Camps, the Saskatchewan Summer Jazz Camp, and the University of Missouri Summer Jazz Residency. He is the founder and director of the UNT Jazz Combo Workshop, the UNT Jazz Trumpet Workshop, and the UNT Jazz Winds Workshop.
Prior to joining the UNT faculty, he was Jazz Artist in Residence at Bethel College, and served on the faculty of Northern Illinois University.
Honors he has received include an Illinois Arts Council Chairman's Grant and a jazz fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Mike has served as Co-Chair of the Jazz Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Emporia State University and a Master of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas.
