About

Judd Danby (b. 1966) is a concert music composer, a jazz pianist and composer/arranger, and a music educator. He most recently taught music theory, composition, and jazz from 2004–2020 at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, IN. He has served as a member of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) writing subcommittee for the 2014 revision of the grades 9–12 standards for music theory and composition, and as the Chair of the Indiana Music Education Association (IMEA) annual Composition Competition. He also co-founded and served from 2009–2018 as Artistic Director of The Jazz Club, a member-supported jazz concert series in Lafayette, IN.

Danby frequently presents pre-show talks for performances on the Purdue Convocations jazz and classical series. He has been a frequent guest on WBAA-920 AM Purdue’s “Inside Jazz,” presenting shows on his own music and the music of historic and contemporary jazz greats.

Danby’s concert works have been performed at venues throughout the U.S. His The Piano’s Stuck, premiered by Marilyn Nonken, was published by the cutting-edge (and now defunct) Soundout Digital Press, an early online publisher of new music. His Mirrors for percussion quartet is published by Media Press, and his electronic work Twelve Can Play That Game appears on the recording Sound Speculations (University of Illinois CD EMS 9300). His jazz works appear on the Los Blancos Latin Jazz Band CD Receta Original (Red Pepper Records CD374).

As a jazz pianist, Danby has performed with his own ensembles, the Los Blancos Latin Jazz Band, saxophonist Randy Salman, and other jazz ensembles throughout central Indiana. As an improvising performer (on fluegelhorn) in the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble he has performed with Roscoe Mitchell and recorded Anthony Braxton’s Composition 165 under the composer’s direction (New Albion 050).