Jazz musician and saxophone professor Joe Eckert has been appointed Director of Jazz Studies in the TCU School of Music. He takes over for Curt Wilson who recently retired from TCU after 35 years with the program.

Eckert joined the School of Music in 2007 after a 20-year career as lead alto saxophonist/woodwind specialist and music director of the famed U.S. Air Force "Airmen of Note" based in Washington, D.C., the armed forces' premier jazz ensemble.

He has also served on the music faculty at Shenandoah University and West Virginia University.

Eckert has performed with some of the great names in jazz, including Louie Bellson, The Brecker Brothers, Bob Mintzer, Peter Erskine, Jimmy Heath, J. J. Johnson, Cleo Laine, Mike Mainieri, Carmen McRae, Clark Terry, Kenny Werner, Paquito D’Rivera, Joe Williams and many others.

Some of his free-lance activities have included performances with the Dallas Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra and tours with Liza Minelli and Nelson Riddle. Comfortable in both jazz and classical idioms, he was the only member of the faculty at Shenandoah to have been a guest soloist with the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble and Brass Quintet and has been featured as a soloist with the TCU Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensemble.