CWU Jazz Camp

Keith Karns, Director, Trumpet

Keith Karns is a trumpet player, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator based in the Pacific Northwest. He has worked with some of the leading voices in jazz including Rich Perry, Stefon Harris, Greta Matassa, Lauren Sevian, the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, and Benny Golson.

Keith's big band has toured nationally and has recorded two CDs of his original compositions and arrangements. He has received awards from the National Trumpet Competition, the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Downbeat Magazine, and the Jazz Education Network (JEN).

Keith is the Director of Jazz at Central Washington University. He directs jazz bands, combos, teaches jazz improvisation, and jazz arranging. Keith has also taught at the University of North Texas, North Central Texas College, and Western Oregon University. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, Indiana University, and the University of North Texas. His teachers include John Harbaugh, Robert Baca, Joey Tartell, Pat Harbison, David Baker, Bill Adam, Jay Saunders, Rich DeRosa, and John Murphy.

Keith performs on a custom trumpet built by Fred Powell. He is a Torpedo Bags performing artist and uses Torpedo Bags to transport and protect all of his trumpets.

Kate Olson - Saxophone

Kate Olson is an improvising saxophonist and music educator based in Seattle, WA. Since moving to Seattle in 2010, she has done her best to infiltrate the local, regional and international improvised music scenes. She can be heard performing with her own projects KO SOLO and KO ELECTRIC, and as a collaborator with the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and Electric Circus (led by Wayne Horvitz), Birch Pereira and the Gin Joints, Battlestar Kalakala (formerly West Seattle Soul/the Pulsations) and with such Seattle staples as the Seattle Men's and Women's Choruses and cabaret producers Can Can Presents and Verlaine & McCann. Kate has a BA in Music (Jazz Emphasis) from the University of Wyoming and an MM in Improvisation from the University of Michigan, and is currently on the jazz faculty at Pacific Lutheran University.

Kate’s international resume continues to grow, including performances in Russia, Latvia, Turkey, Switzerland, South Korea, Cuba, and Slovakia. She has appeared on stage with Terry Riley, Stuart Dempster, Pauline Oliveros, Allison Miller, Bobby Previte, Skerik, Patricia Barber and pop music icons Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, and Sir Mix-a-lot, Seattle Repertory Theater, and Cafe Nordo, among others. Kate was nominated in 2011 and 2013 for the Earshot Golden Ear Award in the Emerging Artist category, and in 2014 and 2016, she was nominated for the Best NW Instrumentalist Category, and in 2016 her band KO Ensemble was also nominated as best NW Alternative Group. In 2020 the KO Ensemble won the Golden Ear Award.

Conner Eisenmenger – Trombone

Seattle-based trombonist Conner Eisenmenger’s experience as a musician is both varied and substantial. His quintet, the “Think Tank'' finds spaces for the voice of the trombone within Folk, Indie Rock, Contemporary Classical, and Jazz styles. A piece written for the Think Tank, “Choice Paralysis” received the 2022 ASCAP Herp Alpert Young Jazz Composer’s Award. Other performance accolades include winning the 2019 ITEC Rich Matteson Jazz Euphonium Competition and winning second prize in the 2020 International Online Trombone Competition.

Eisenmenger holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Western Kentucky University and a Master's degree in Jazz Studies from University of North Texas where he had the privilege of playing in the One O’Clock Lab Band. Eisenmenger’s teachers include Eddie Clark, Lee Blakeman, Tony Baker, and Andre Hayward. In his time since school, He has kept an active calendar as a clinician, public educator, and touring band leader.

David Morganroth – Piano

David Morgenroth is a solo and collaborative artist in classical, jazz, and popular genres. He has performed across the United States and Canada as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America, with such luminaries as Michael Brecker, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Golson, Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Peacock, Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans, Bill Watrous, and Joe Williams.

David has released four recordings under his own name, collaborating with notables like Chris Potter and Bob Sheppard (saxophones), Drew Gress and Chris Colangelo (bass), and Joe LaBarbera (drums). Bill Donaldson of Jazz News writes, “Morgenroth provides evidence of a style shaped by intelligence, clarity of conception, and even an elegance that shimmers. He possesses both invention and originality of sound in abundance.”

David holds graduate degrees in both classical piano and jazz studies from the University of North Texas (UNT), including the first doctoral degree in jazz performance awarded by that institution. David currently teaches at Western Oregon University. He lives with his wife, Barbara Koostra, and their two dogs in Eugene, Oregon.

Stefan Schatz - Drums

Stefan Schatz was born in New York City. He has been fortunate to work with many fine artists, including vocalists Dakota Staton, Jon Hendricks, and Peggy Cone, legendary bassist Milt Hinton, vibraphonist Teddy Charles, saxophonists Mark Turner, Arnie Lawrence, and Chris Byars, tap dancer Buster Brown, and pianists Herman Foster, Freddie Redd, and Michael Kanan. In April 2019, Stefan made his debut with the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, under the direction of Wynton Marsalis.

Stefan has played at most of the great jazz clubs in New York City, including the Village Vanguard, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Blue Note, Birdland, Iridium, and Smalls. He has toured worldwide with the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Chris Byars Quartet, the Ari Roland Quartet, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. His performances with Mark Morris were praised in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The London Times.

Stefan was a three-time recipient of the prestigious “Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad” program, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department, which sent musicians all over the world to represent the US by playing jazz. Stefan participated in the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for his work on the album "High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project," by Loudon Wainwright III.