Bassist Dustin Retzlaff is an active performer, clinician, teacher, student, piano technician, arranger, and Brazilian music fan. Retzlaff directs the University of Minnesota, Morris Jazz Program and teaches jazz improvisation, applied lessons, arranging, and composition. He has performed with The J’Ouvert Steel Band, Paul McKee, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Mundell Lowe, Byron Stripling, Sherry Miracle, Eric Marienthal, Phil Hey, Fred Wesley, Laura Caviani, Kenni Holmen, Cathy Jensen-Hole, Bert Ligon, Brad Leali, Jenna McSwain & Friends, Steve Kovalcheck, and others.
Retzlaff graduated from the University of Minnesota, Morris with a bachelor of arts in music in 2005 and moved to Columbia, South Carolina. In addition to pursuing a master of music from the University of South Carolina, Retzlaff taught strings and directed orchestras in South Carolina’s Richland One School District during the 2006–07 academic year. He was awarded a teaching scholarship from the South Carolina Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development for an essay discussing the effect of the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation on South Carolina arts classrooms.
While a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, he performed regionally with many diverse ensembles such as theater pit orchestras, steel drum bands, jazz fusion bands, church ensembles, string orchestras, and jazz ensembles. He performed in the TIAA-CREF All-Star Jazz Ensemble in Charlotte, North Carolina, under the direction of Brad Leali. He also performed in the Hartsville, South Carolina Jazz Festival, the Albany Music Festival in Georgia, the Okra Strut Festival in Irmo, South Carolina, and in the South Carolina Jazz Festival in Cheraw.
Retzlaff has been a clinician or performer for several other jazz festivals including the Grand Marais Jazz Festival, the Albany High School Jazz Festival, and the University of Minnesota, Morris jazz festivals of 2002, 2003, and 2004. He was the 2005 recipient of the Keith Carlson Memorial Jazz Award from the University of Minnesota, Morris and has been a guest artist at the UMM Summer Jazz Camp annually since 2010. He also performed in jazz ensembles, combos, and with guest clinicians at the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festivals of 2010 and 2011.
As a doctoral student at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), he directed one of the UNC Jazz Ensembles during the 2010–11 academic year and in 2010 he joined the faculty at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, as instructor of jazz bass. He received and maintained a renewable graduate dean’s award upon entrance to the University of Northern Colorado in 2009. He was the transportation manager for the 2011 UNC, Greeley Jazz Festival, worked extensively with the UNC Jazz Press, and was the head librarian for the UNC Jazz Library.
Retzlaff studied with bassist Nixon Bustos while earning a bachelor of arts in music from the University of Minnesota, Morris. He earned a master of music under Craig Butterfield and Bert Ligon at the University of South Carolina, and is a doctor of arts candidate under professors Dana Landry, Jim White, and Erik Applegate at the University of Northern Colorado.
