Dr. Chip Crotts

Dr. Chip Crotts serves as Director of Jazz Studies and Assistant Director of Bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A GRAMMY-nominated artist, Crotts has performed and recorded for the Disney Company in Europe and the United States and maintains an active career as a first call musician for national touring shows and orchestral dates throughout the United States. Chip has toured and worked with numerous international artists and ensembles, including Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, The Manhattan Transfer, Frankie Valli, Jamie Cullum, Boston Brass, Rhythm and Brass, The O’Jay’s, The Temptations and Maynard Ferguson, among others.

He can be heard on recent albums with John Driskell Hopkins, Jennifer Holliday, and Joe Gransden, as well as on the SeaBreeze Jazz label, with groups such as the Bob Meyer Concept Orchestra and Third Coast Jazz Orchestra. Chip was also a featured musician on the Grammy-nominated “Celebration of Life” with Little Joe Y La Familia. Additional recordings include performances with the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, University of Texas Jazz Orchestra, Penn State Centre Dimensions and East Carolina Jazz Ensemble “A”. Dr. Crotts has also been a featured soloist in some of the world’s premier musical venues, including Birdland, Blues Alley, Blue Note, Le Duc des Lombards (Paris, France), the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.

As an educator and clinician, Dr. Crotts presents clinics nationally on Brass Pedagogy, Jazz Pedagogy, Breathing for Wind Players and Versatility in Performance. Currently, Dr. Crotts serves as Vice-President of the Georgia Association of Jazz Educators, as well as being a member of NAfME, the American Federation of Musicians, the Jazz Education Network and The International Trumpet Guild. He is a past fellowship recipient from the Aspen Music Festival and Music at the Banff Centre (Canada), as well as a grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts, Georgia Tech Foundation, and recent selection as a Georgia Tech “Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow”.

Dr. Crotts received his undergraduate degree in Music Business from East Carolina University, a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance from Penn State University, as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Trumpet Performance with a Jazz Emphasis from the University of Texas at Austin. His primary teachers include Ray Sasaki, Ray Crisara, John Daniel and Tom Huener, including additional studies with Boyde Hood and Roger Ingram.

Also involved in the marching arts, Crotts has served as a brass instructor with Spirit of Atlanta, Phantom Regiment, The Blue Devils, The Cavaliers and is presently Brass Caption Supervisor for the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps. Chip is very active as a clinician and adjudicator and has served in this capacity with organizations such as Bands of America, Drum Corps International, Drum Corps Japan, DCI Taiwan Marching Academy, Winter Guard International, and numerous state and national music educator associations

Previously, Chip served on the faculties of Samford University, Jacksonville State University and The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Crotts resides in Acworth, GA with his wife Kelly and daughter Abigail.