Professional Background:
Vern Sielert is Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Studies at the University of Idaho.  From 2001-2006 he was Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Washington, and he has also served on the faculties of Baylor University, Illinois State University and Millikin University.  Sielert has also directed jazz ensembles at Normal Community West High School in Normal, Illinois.  He holds BM degrees in jazz studies and music education, and a MM degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas, and a DMA in trumpet performance from the University of Illinois.

Sielert has been a student of Jack Adams, Keith Johnson, Don Jacoby, Michael Ewald, and Ray Sasaki. He has performed with artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Freddie Hubbard, The Spinners, The O’Jays, Bobby Shew, Don Lanphere, Gerald Wilson and Ralph Carmichael, and in such diverse settings as the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Walt Disney World.  Vern was also a member of the University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band, which has recorded several of his compositions and arrangements. 

Vern maintains an active performing schedule with groups such as the Jim Knapp Orchestra, Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and the Jay Thomas Big Band.  He can be heard on recent recordings by Kelly Wright, the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, and Phil Kelly’s Northwest Prevailing Winds.  Vern is also an active clinician and adjudicator, and has appeared at schools and jazz festivals throughout the US, and at conferences of the Washington Music Educators, MENC Northwest Division, and the International Association for Jazz Education.

His jazz trumpet solo transcriptions have appeared regularly in the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild since 1998, and he was host of the 2005 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition at the University of Washington.