Mike Dana
Recently retired, guitarist, educator, and composer Mike Dana has been Director of Jazz Studies at Fresno City College from 1990 to 2018. AT FCC, Mike directed the award-winning Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Combos, and Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He also taught advanced improvisation, jazz theory, arranging, and jazz history.
His guitar credits include performances with Cannonball Adderley, Gary Burton, Clark Terry, Bob Mintzer, Bobby Shew, Ingrid Jensen, Ernie Watts, Arturo Sandoval, Eric Marienthal, and many others. His commissions, compositions and arrangements for both instrumental and vocal jazz ensemble are widely performed across the U.S. These are published by Belwin/Alfred, Kendor, Jazzlines, UNC Jazz Press, and Heritage Music Press. He recently completed his first wind ensemble commission, for the Fresno Community Concert Band.
Mike’s performing and teaching have taken him around the world. He was a US State Department cultural envoy to Thailand as a member of the Allison Miller Quartet, and will travel to Lebanon, Cyprus, Thailand and China in 2018. Other honors include Grammy Foundation Music Educator of the Year semi-finalist (2016), and Jazz Educator of the Year (CMEA, 2018), and induction into the California Alliance for Jazz Hall of Fame (2018.) Post-retirement plans include lots more composing, performing, and teaching, and traveling with his wife Julie.