Rosemary Walzer

Education

MM, Instrumental Conducting, UW-Milwaukee
BM, Music Education, Heidelberg University

Biography

Music educator and saxophonist, Rosemary McGee Walzer is the Director the UWM Youth Jazz Ensemble and Director of Bands at Maple Dale Elementary School. She has particularly emphasized the importance of jazz education throughout her career—helping to build programs at Maple Dale and Catholic Memorial High School, lecturing Jazz history and appreciation courses in the UW system, and teaching in the Jazz and Contemporary Music Department at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Rosemary earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio in 2006 where she studied conducting, music education, and jazz. She also earned a Master of Music degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2011. During this time, she studied conducting with Dr. John Climer, saxophone with Curt Hanrahan, served as a graduate conducting associate with both the University Band and the Youth Wind Ensemble, and assisted with the overall administration of the university band program.

In addition to her regular teaching gigs, Rosemary serves as a guest lecturer, clinician, and music camp instructor. She is a regular clinician with the Woody Herman Jazz Festival and has been invited to work with many instrumental ensembles throughout Southeast Wisconsin. Additionally, she served as music director for Pankratz Arts Exchange in Mount Calvary, WI for five seasons and maintains a private studio.

As a performer, Rosemary was one of the winners of the Heidelberg University Concerto Competition in 2003 and received the Arthur Bean Award there in 2005. She currently freelances in the Milwaukee area and has performed with several instrumental ensembles, including her jazz combo Rosemary and Time, the funk/soul band Montage, the Kicks Big Band, the All-Star Superband, the Racine Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra, with which she recorded two albums, Welcome to Swingsville! (2017) and Take It All (2021).