Valerie Gillespie is an adjunct faculty member at The University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, and Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL. She earned her BFA from Carnegie Mellon with a major in Classical Saxophone and her MM in Jazz Saxophone from the University of South Florida.
Valerie has played with national icons including Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Rosemary Clooney, George Burns, Ben Vereen, Natalie Cole, Joan Rivers, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, John Faddis, Steve Allen, Anthony Newly, Dionne Warwick, Michael Feinstein, and many more. Valerie has traveled with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra throughout the United States and Japan, and performs regularly with Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge.
Recently Valerie has had the distinct honor of being the cover story and feature article in Saxophone Today Magazine.
Additionally, she leads her own jazz group that frequently performs in the Tampa Bay area and has produced numerous CDs in which she plays all the saxophones, flutes, and clarinet, and sings as well. Her most recent jazz CD is entitled “Lush Life” which includes music by Chick Corea and Billy Strayhorn. She is also frequently the featured soloist with The Florida Orchestra and has performed at many jazz festivals including The Suncoast Jazz Classic and The Clearwater Jazz Holiday.
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