Dave Sterner

Dave Sterner

Applied Faculty, Saxophone

Dave Sterner is a 1992 graduate of Indiana University’s Jazz Studies program, where he studied under renowned jazz educator David Baker. As a part-time jazz faculty member at Cuyahoga Community College since 2007, Dave has taught an array of classes that include Ear Training, Jazz Theory, Arranging, Improvisation, and Music Skills. He also directed the Lakeland Community College Jazz orchestra and co-directed the Lakeland Jazz Festival from 2008-2020. He has been a clinician for Lakeland Jazzfest, TRI-C Jazzfest, Ashland University Jazz Festival, College of Wooster, and several local high schools. Dave has recorded with the Ernie Krivda Fat Tuesday Big band, the East Central Jazz Educator’s All-Star Big Band, the N. Glenn Davis Quintet, and the Dave Sterner Quintet. He has won awards from Scene magazine and Free Times magazine for best jazz ensemble and horn player.

As a free-lance musician, Sterner has performed locally with Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Manhattan Transfer, Phil Woods, David Sanborn, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie All-star Big Band to name a few.

“Sterner’s music is always accessible, energetic, logically constructed, rhythmically inviting, technically accomplished and fun to hear.”

-Bill Donaldson, Cadence Magazine