Currently, I'm a freelance musician in central Florida, and an instructor at Florida Southern College.  I perform in pit orchestras for touring Broadway shows, accompany celebrities like Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles, and Barry Manilow, sub in several professional big bands, and do occasional jazz combo work. I'm also publishing several big band charts I've written over the years and writing new ones. At Florida Southern College, I teach applied saxophone and clarinet, jazz improvisation and arranging, woodwind pedagogy, and assist in a woodwind performance class.

Warning: This is ancient history.

In the days of the dinosaurs.
I was fortunate to be inspired on saxophone by my high school band director, Richard Vanderhagen. I learned to play the bassoon from Larry Priest, and took my first jazz lessons with Charlie Atkins, who introduced me to the magic of bebop. I was a strong bassoon player and performed with several community bands and orchestras around South Bend, Indiana. This was a blessing because it gave me an opportunity to play with adult professionals as well as top students from other school districts.

My college years.
Bachelor's and Master's degrees were earned from Indiana University where my major influences were Eugene Rousseau and Daniel Deffayet on sax, Earl Bates on clarinet, and David Baker in jazz studies. Initially, I intended to become a studio musician, but my career goals changed and I prepared to become a college professor instead.  I was David Baker's teaching assistant for 2 years and took the opportunity to write for and lead a big band of my peers. I spent many hours in the practice room, learned many things about music and jazz in particular, and also made my first attempts at jazz composition and arranging. All in all, it was a very intense and exciting time of my life.

My Wisconsin career.
After finishing college in 1976, I moved to Wisconsin to start my career. During the 14 years spent in Wisconsin, I taught at 5 state universities as an adjunct professor. I also taught privately and was in a quartet for 10 years that played numerous private parties. My most noteworthy accomplishment was playing saxophone in the Green Bay Packer Jazz Band for 4 years on right tenor. Around 1990 I realized my career was not moving in the direction I wanted to go anymore. Even though I enjoyed living in the dairy state, I contacted an acquaintance in Florida and prepared to start over again,

My Florida career.
In 1991, I moved to Florida and became a musician at the Walt Disney World Resort. In the early part of my Disney career, I was a sub for nearly every woodwind position at the resort. This included such interesting gigs as:

• playing Eb clarinet in an ethnic dance show, 
• playing clarinet and sax in the marching band, 
• playing in a Broadway show band, and 
• playing in a 1920's style hotel band. 

In 1997, I was asked to teach a few saxophone students at Florida Southern on a part-time basis and rediscovered how enjoyable and stimulating a teaching career can be.

See a more traditional resume.

Any comments or questions? Contact genehunn@aol.com

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