Music Department Faculty

Our faculty members have performed at locations as far reaching as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Lincoln Center in New York City, the Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna, and even the National Music Hall in Taipei! They can also be found closer to home in Kansas City jazz clubs and at the helm of orchestras in neighboring locales. Sharing the stage with musicians from the Temptations to Yo-Yo Ma, these professors are also professionals who continue to perfect their craft.

 

Michael Pagan Adjunct Professor Jazz Piano Education Check bio for additional education credits

As a jazz pianist Michael Pagán has performed for over thirty years throughout the United States and in Europe with many jazz greats including Greg Abate, Billy Hart, Claudio Sloan, Kenny Wheeler, Jiggs Whigham, and many more. He performs regularly at numerous venues in Kansas City as a solo jazz pianist and appears with his own trio, with vocalist Millie Edwards, and with Greg Carroll’s Midnight Blue Jazz Quartet. As a composer Pagán has written over 150 works and has released eight CDs as leader, mostly in the jazz idiom. His 2005 big band recording Pag’s Groove garnered wide critical acclaim. In 2010 he released two recordings, Michael Pagán Trio Three for the Ages with bassist Bob Bowman and drummer Ray DeMarchi and 12 Preludes and Fugues for saxophone quartet, a landmark work of over 70 minutes. A live duo recording with Millie Edwards was released in April, 2011. He has served on jazz faculties at UMKC, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of MN-Duluth. His music is published by Dutch Music Partners of The Netherlands and UNC Jazz Press and he has recorded for the Cadence, Capri, Dutch Music Partners, and Artists Recording Collective labels.