Townsend

Townsend is a well-known composer and educator based in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has composed and arranged music for a wide range of ensembles, including trombone quartet, string quartet, chamber group and large jazz orchestra. Her music has been recorded and performed by many groups in Canada and the United States including the Calgary based Prime Time Big Band featuring P. J. Perry, the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, and Juno nominated vocalist Karin Plato. She is a prolific writer for her own ensemble, the Jill Townsend Big Band, which features seventeen of Canada's finest jazz musicians. As well as being nominated by the National Jazz Awards in 2006 and 2008 for Big Band of the Year, the JTBB performed and premiered a new work by Socan Composer Award recipient Ian McDougall, at the prestigious IAJE conference in New York, 2007. Jill received her Masters Degree in Composition from the University of Victoria, BC and has studied composition, arranging and trombone with Ian McDougall, Kenny Wheeler, Rob McConnell and Jiggs Whigham.