Director Charles (Chuck) Tumlinson is in his second year at Cal State Fullerton leading the jazz program. He was formerly associate professor of trumpet and director of jazz studies at Washburn University at Topeka, Kansas. As a jazz performer Tumlinson was featured as trumpet soloist with the University of North Texas One O'clock Lab Band, and has appeared at the Wichita, Reno, and Kool jazz festivals. He has performed with the Count Basie Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Terence Blanchard, Mark Murphy and Ray Charles. Tumlinson has been featured soloist at several national conventions and has appeared as soloist, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the country. His compositions and arrangements have been recorded by leading bands and performers throughout the country such Pete Christlieb, Eric Marienthal, the University of Northern Colorado Lab and the University of North Texas One O'clock Lab Band. In addition to his jazz credentials, Tumlinson has served as principal trumpet in the Wichita Falls (Texas) Symphony and has performed with the Wichita Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony/Opera and Sunflower Chamber orchestras.

Graduate saxophonist Jeff Ellwood leads the Jeff Ellwood quintet. Ellwood a graduate assistant in jazz studies was selected last summer to be a member of the Henry Mancini Institute, and will return again this summer. Participants are selected from applications worldwide and represented 62 U.S. cities and 15 countries. Last summer at the Institute he performed in the Institute Big Band and Orchestra, and was spotlighted as a soloist. In a review by the Los Angeles Times, Ellwood’s playing was lauded, saying he “displayed inventive imagination already functioning at a high professional level.”