Greg Keel has been on the faculty at MacPhail Center for Music since 1995, teaching saxophone, directing community partnership ensembles, and instructing in the jazz combo and summer camp programs. Greg is also on the faculty at Carleton College in Northfield and Hamline University in St. Paul.
He has performed with a wide range of entertainment luminaries including Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, The O’Jays, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, The Fifth Dimension, Frankie Valli, Lou Rawls, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Vinton, Bob Hope, The Temptations and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Greg's high school and college students have received recognition from Down Beat Magazine’s annual Student Jazz Awards, and are frequently selected as members of the Minnesota All-State Jazz Ensembles, the Dakota Combo, Minnesota Youth Jazz Bands and the Minnesota All-State Concert Band.Greg is a member of the JAZZAX Saxophone Quartet, Synergy, and the 10-piece soul/pop group The Good the Bad and the Funky.
He is an artist/clinician for Conn-Selmer, and served as vice-president of the Minnesota chapter of the International Association for Jazz Educators. Greg studied at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire and Madison, with additional graduate studies at Concordia University of St. Paul.
Organized and informational lessons are foremost, with an attention to weekly and long-term progress. We begin our studies where the student is currently at with their proficiency level, and proceed from there. We'll keep track of lesson assignments, repertoire and performance progress with a weekly journal that the students brings each session for updating. All of this is done with an attention to musical growth, at the same time keeping an enjoyable and relaxed studio atmosphere.
"I always give credit to my greatest teachers, my students!" - Greg Keel
