bio/gallery
Currently residing in Portland, Oregon, Jessika Smith (Jessie Smith, formerly Jessika Leek) is a composer, saxophonist, and music educator. She is the director and coordinator of the Jessika Smith Big Band and is the newly elected Oregon Music Educator's Association Jazz Area Chair. She is proud to be a featured composer with Brava Jazz Publishing. Jessika plays frequently in Oregon and Washington with assorted jazz groups, including Torrey Newhart’s Obsidian Animals and the Frank Irwin Sextet and she currently teaches band at Parkrose Middle School and jazz band at Parkrose High School in Northeast Portland. The Jessika Smith Big Band's debut album, "Tricks of Light", was released with PJCE records on December 18, 2015.
Jessika can be heard on Torrey Newhart's Obsidian Animals album "Sound In-Sight", Milonga's "The Brown Album", and Bob Curnow's "The Music Of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays Vol. 2".
Smith's composition "Cyan Thread" was the winner of the 2015 National Band Association Young Jazz Composer's Contest. The Navy Commodores performed the piece at the 2015 Midwest Clinic in Chicago on December 17, 2015. "Cyan Thread" was also awarded an honorable mention in the 2015 Ithaca College Jazz Composition Contest.
In 2013, Jessika's composition, "Lights" for large jazz ensemble was the winner of the first annual Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra Composition Contest. "Lights" was performed with guest artist Ingrid Jensen at the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, WA on October 24, 2013. Lights and other samples of Jessika's playing and writing can be heard here: http://www.jessikasmithmusic.com/listen.html
During her time at UO (graduated 2014), Jessika played lead alto with the award-winning Oregon Jazz Ensemble, which toured Europe in the summer of 2014 and participated in the Montreux, Vienne, Umbria, and La Spezia Jazz Festivals. Jessika was a UO graduate teaching fellow whose duties included directing Jazz Lab 2 (big band), jazz combos, teaching private saxophone lessons, and being a teaching assistant in Jazz Performance Lab and Jazz History courses. She studied with Steve Owen (jazz composition/arranging) and Idit Shner (saxophone).
Jessika is also a graduate of Eastern Washington University with a BA and teaching certificate in K-12 Music Education. While working toward her undergraduate degree, she studied saxophone performance with Todd Delgiudice and music composition and arranging with Rob Tapper and Don Goodwin. She received the "Outstanding Undergraduate Jazz Award" both in 2009 and 2010, graduated magna cum laude, and received the honor of EWU's Frances B. Huston award in 2011.
Jessika taught for many years at the EWU Jazz Dialogue Summer Camp, regularly teaches at the Seattle Saxophone Institute Summer Camp, and has taught at the Seattle JazzEd Prep Camp. She has adjudicated at the PLU Weathermon Jazz Festival,Northwest Jazz Band Festival in Gresham Oregon, The Oregon Jazz Festival in Eugene Oregon, the City Jazz Festival in Fresno California, the EWU Jazz Dialogue Festival in Cheney WA, the Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival in Pleasant Hill, OR and the Reno Jazz Festival, and she gives clinics and workshops in saxophone, composition/arranging and jazz improvisation.
Jessika can be heard on Torrey Newhart's Obsidian Animals album "Sound In-Sight", Milonga's "The Brown Album", and Bob Curnow's "The Music Of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays Vol. 2".
Smith's composition "Cyan Thread" was the winner of the 2015 National Band Association Young Jazz Composer's Contest. The Navy Commodores performed the piece at the 2015 Midwest Clinic in Chicago on December 17, 2015. "Cyan Thread" was also awarded an honorable mention in the 2015 Ithaca College Jazz Composition Contest.
In 2013, Jessika's composition, "Lights" for large jazz ensemble was the winner of the first annual Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra Composition Contest. "Lights" was performed with guest artist Ingrid Jensen at the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, WA on October 24, 2013. Lights and other samples of Jessika's playing and writing can be heard here: http://www.jessikasmithmusic.com/listen.html
During her time at UO (graduated 2014), Jessika played lead alto with the award-winning Oregon Jazz Ensemble, which toured Europe in the summer of 2014 and participated in the Montreux, Vienne, Umbria, and La Spezia Jazz Festivals. Jessika was a UO graduate teaching fellow whose duties included directing Jazz Lab 2 (big band), jazz combos, teaching private saxophone lessons, and being a teaching assistant in Jazz Performance Lab and Jazz History courses. She studied with Steve Owen (jazz composition/arranging) and Idit Shner (saxophone).
Jessika is also a graduate of Eastern Washington University with a BA and teaching certificate in K-12 Music Education. While working toward her undergraduate degree, she studied saxophone performance with Todd Delgiudice and music composition and arranging with Rob Tapper and Don Goodwin. She received the "Outstanding Undergraduate Jazz Award" both in 2009 and 2010, graduated magna cum laude, and received the honor of EWU's Frances B. Huston award in 2011.
Jessika taught for many years at the EWU Jazz Dialogue Summer Camp, regularly teaches at the Seattle Saxophone Institute Summer Camp, and has taught at the Seattle JazzEd Prep Camp. She has adjudicated at the PLU Weathermon Jazz Festival,Northwest Jazz Band Festival in Gresham Oregon, The Oregon Jazz Festival in Eugene Oregon, the City Jazz Festival in Fresno California, the EWU Jazz Dialogue Festival in Cheney WA, the Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival in Pleasant Hill, OR and the Reno Jazz Festival, and she gives clinics and workshops in saxophone, composition/arranging and jazz improvisation.
