“Many of my dreams have come true, but what I’ve learned is that dreams CHANGE. I always thought that the most important thing was to play my horn, but later on I had a NEW dream: to help young musicians make THEIR dreams come true. That became my supreme joy and my greatest aspiration.”

2023-Paul DeMarinis

Paul DeMarinis is a native of St. Louis. He attended Indiana University and studied jazz improvisation extensively with the well-known jazz education pioneer David Baker and famed saxophonist/educator Jamey Aebersold. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Jazz Studies from Webster University in 1982 and 1987. He began teaching as an adjunct faculty member at Webster in 1980. By 1988 he was the full-time Director of the Jazz Studies Program. At Webster he taught saxophone, jazz improvisation and theory, jazz history, and jazz education methods. He also coordinated the faculty jazz ensemble and directs the Webster Summer Jazz Camp and the Jazz @ Webster Concert.

He was cofounder of the original music cooperative Brilliant Corners which recorded for the MAX JAZZ label in 1997, and has written extensively for his own trio, quartet, and sextet. He has enjoyed extended musical relationships with the Kim Portnoy Jazz Orchestra, The Jim Widner Big Band, The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, and was a faculty member of Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops from 1996-2008. He has also been a faculty member of the International Summer Jazz Academy in Poland. He has performed with many notable musicians/bands, including Dave Liebman, Louie Bellson, Gary Foster, Bobby Shew, Paul Wertico, the Count Basie Orchestra, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Nancy Wilson, Doc Severinson, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., Lou Rawls, Gladys Knight, the Temptations, and the Four Tops.