Cedar Rapids-born jazz performer and educator Ryan Middagh will be gracing the Iowa City Jazz Festival stage with his saxophone along with an array of talented musicians known as “Ryan Middaugh Jazz Orchestra.”
This group is coming from Nashville, Tennessee, where Middagh is an assistant professor of jazz at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. The group frequently performs at festivals, like the Iowa City Jazz Festival, and is a recent creation of Middagh’s.
The group is one of 25 artists that will perform at the Iowa City Jazz Festival from July 4th through 6th. The annual festival is hosted by Iowa City Summer of the Arts and boasts big names in Jazz and a fireworks show on July 5.
Middagh began playing saxophone at a young age and became a part of his middle and high school bands. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a bachelor’s of arts in music and moved to Nashville, where his career seemed to take off.
“One of the things that makes Iowa so great is the education system,” he said. “I came into music in 6th grade. When I was in high school, I started looking around and thinking, ‘My band director gets to do music every day, and that seems really cool.’ I went into music thinking I’d be a music education major, be a high school band director in Iowa, and have three kids and a picket fence.”
Middagh’s original plan was derailed when he worked as a student teacher in Nashville and began gaining recognition and booking gigs. Middagh revealed he booked his first gig the day he moved to Nashville to do his student teaching.
Currently, Middagh holds the Director of Jazz Studies position at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.
Before that, he traveled worldwide to share his unique melodies with large audiences of jazz enthusiasts. Revered as an educator, composer, musician, and leader, Middagh is a powerhouse of sound.
Since Middagh arrived at Vanderbilt over ten years ago, the school’s jazz program has received both national and international attention. This included receiving invitations to the 2017 Jazz Education Network Conference and performing internationally.
“The thing I really love is teaching; that’s why I got into this, to begin with,” Middagh said. “I’ve been down to South America several times to teach jazz. Being able to have a diverse career is awesome.”
Teaching is not where Middagh’s work ends. Outside of academics, he is often a part of other projects in many genres of music. Middagh’s work has been in all sorts of genre’s including Thomas Rhett’s most recent country record “About A Woman (From A Small Town)” and more.
Middagh will make his return to the festival and perform alongside members of the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra at the Jazz Festival on July 4 at 8 p.m. The performance will be at Strauss Community Stage, located at 16 N. Clinton St.
“I’ve performed once at [Iowa City’s] Jazz Fest as a junior in high school,” Middagh said. “I played on one of the side stages with my high school jazz combo. I’m just really excited to be back and share my music with the community.”