Matt Sawyer,

Assistant Band Director, Director of Jazz Studies

Originally from Paris, TX, saxophonist and woodwinds player Matt Sawyer is Jazz Director and Associate Band Director at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, TX. His duties include directing the Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble I, as well as assisting with all aspects of the Paschal Band program and the middle school feeders. Under his direction since 2016, Jazz Ensemble I has been recognized nationally 4 times: the 10th Annual Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference in Reno, NV and this year’s 13th Annual JEN conference in Dallas, TX; as a Finalist for the 2020 Perform With Mintzer Competition; and as a Commended Winner for the 2018 Mark of Excellence National Jazz Honors Project with 3 Outstanding Soloist recognitions. Paschal Jazz has also been recognized at the largest D/FW Jazz Festivals: TCU (1st-2019, 2nd-2018), 2nd-2020 Plano Jazz Invitational, and 2nd-2021 UT-Arlington Jazz Festival, where they received 3 Overall Outstanding Awards for the whole festival: Outstanding Woodwind, Outstanding Rhythm Musician, and Outstanding Director. A subset of the Paschal Jazz Ensemble was featured in director Sawyer's 2019 Texas Music Educator's Association (TMEA) clinic titled It's All in the Warm-up: Creating a Culture of Confident Improvisers. The band has also premiered commissioned pieces for both JEN (Erik Morales-"In the Mean Time," 2019) and the 2019 Apex Jazz Festival in Southlake, TX. Jazz Combo I was 1st Place at the 2017 Viking Jazz Festival and performed at the 2018 Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. His students have regularly been recognized as Texas (TMEA) All Region, Area, and All State Jazz and Concert musicians.

Mr. Sawyer played alto and tenor saxophone in the world-renowned University of North Texas (UNT) One O'clock Lab Band under the direction of Neil Slater for 4 years. He appeared with the band on 4 studio albums (Lab 2004-2007) and two live albums (Live From Thailand and Live At Blues Alley). He was also a 2-time Finalist in the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Jazz Competition, and his group The Matt Sawyer Orchestra was selected to perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. His arrangement for his group of John Coltrane's Dear Lord was Downbeat Winner of Best Arrangement the same year. He also performed as a both a classical and jazz saxophonist and soloist at the NASA Biennial Conferences in Lubbock, TX, and Champaign, IL with the TWU/Brookhaven Saxophone Ensemble.

Matt Sawyer has performed with Jimmy Heath, Pete Christlieb, Benny Golson, Phil Woods, Lou Marini, His Majesty The King of Thailand, Nick Payton, Rufus Reid, Lynn Seaton, Ed Soph, Fred Hamilton, Wayne Bergeron, D/FW area big bands Rebel Alliance Jazz Ensemble and Sundance Square Dance Band, Michael League and Chris McQueen of Snarky Puppy, America's Got Talent finalist Cas Haley, and many others. He has performed in groups as the opening act for Wayne Newton, Barbara Fairchild, Maroon 5, Dave Douglas, and Chick Corea, and has toured and performed as a musician and clinician all over the US, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Poland, and the Netherlands.

In addition to his duties at Paschal, Mr. Sawyer is an active teacher and clinician in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. He has been the Region Jazz Clinician for Regions 3 and 31 twice, as well as directing the Region 4 and 24 jazz bands and adjudicating the inaugural Legacy Jazz Festival. He currently serves as the Texas Jazz Educators Association (TJEA) President and has been on the TJEA Board since 2020. Prior to coming to Paschal, Mr. Sawyer was an applied instructor of jazz saxophone at Brookhaven College and Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo Director at TWU. He also taught saxophone and woodwind lessons for North Lamar, Mesquite, and Richardson ISDs. As a band director for Music Learning Band Programs for five years, he taught at over fifteen private schools in the Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan area. His professional affiliations include TMEA, TJEA, and JEN. Mr. Sawyer holds both a Masters in Music Education and MA in Teaching from Texas Woman's University (TWU) and a Bachelors of Music in Jazz Studies from UNT.

Matt lives in Fort Worth with his wife Yukari and 2 sons Hayato and Kento, and their 2 cats Misia and Oscar.