World-Class Artist Residencies for Schools. Zero Risk. Maximum Impact.
DGLevatEd™
World-class jazz, Americana, contemporary classical, and roots artists.
No product sales. No ticket quotas. No financial risk.
Just music.
DGLevatEd Position Paper
The Jazz Education Funding Crisis: How Artist-Led Residencies Can Close the Gap
This position paper explains the national decline in arts-education funding, the challenges jazz directors face, and how DGLevatEd removes financial risk entirely by providing a zero-risk residency model for K–12, collegiate, and community programs.
How DGLevatEd Works
Step 1: Choose Your Artist
Select from world-class jazz, Americana, contemporary classical, and roots artists.
Clinics, masterclasses, full-ensemble residencies, and student performances are all available.
Step 2: Launch Your Digital Fundraiser
We build your school a custom donation page.
No product sales. No ticket quotas. No upfront financial obligation.
Step 3: Activate Your Residency
Once your school raises the artist fee plus the 35 percent DGLevatEd administration fee, your residency is activated. No payment is due before activation.
Step 4: Schedule the Visit
We coordinate travel, logistics, class schedules, tech needs, and performance planning.
You focus on your students, not paperwork.
Step 5: Keep the Excess Through the Legacy Model
After activation, 86.5 percent of all additional funds stay with your program. The remaining 13.5 percent supports the DGLevatEd Legacy Fund to help future underfunded schools.
Residency Options
Clinics
Single-class or multi-class sessions focused on technique, ensemble skills, improvisation, interpretation, and professional insight.
Masterclasses
Artist-led demonstrations, deep dives, and student participation in front of an audience or large group setting.
Full-Ensemble Residencies
Your band, orchestra, choir, or jazz ensemble works directly with the artist to rehearse repertoire, refine musicianship, and prepare for performance.
Student Performance Opportunities
Students perform alongside world-class artists in a culminating concert, community performance, or feature event.
Multi-Day Artist Residencies
Comprehensive visits that include clinics, rehearsals, masterclasses, community events, guest artist appearances, and performances.
Why DGLevatEd™
Most schools want professional artists but can’t afford them. DGLevatEd fixes that. We eliminate financial risk, simplify logistics, and bring nationally recognized musicians straight into classrooms through fully funded, turnkey residencies. Our model gives teachers real access, not sales quotas or subscription gimmicks. Students learn directly from working professionals. Programs grow. Communities benefit. The mission is simple: make excellence reachable for every school.
DGLevatEd™ brings world-class jazz, Americana, contemporary classical, and roots artists into K-12 and collegiate music programs through fully funded, zero-risk residencies. Schools searching for jazz masterclasses, big band clinics, artist-in-residence programs, brass sectionals, cultural diplomacy residencies, or professional ensemble coaching find it here through DGL Artists™, the agency behind DGLevatEd™.
Featured Artists
Mike Vax is one of the defining voices in modern big band and jazz education. A featured soloist with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, director of the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, and an internationally touring artist for more than five decades, his work has shaped generations of performers and educators.
Vax’s residencies bring deep expertise in trumpet performance, big band leadership, improvisation, phrasing, ensemble interpretation, rehearsal technique, and musical professionalism. Schools gain direct access to a master educator who has taught thousands of students across the United States and abroad.
Clinics, sectionals, improvisation workshops, full-ensemble residencies, and student feature performances are available.
The Dina Preston Band is an award-winning Americana and roots ensemble whose global touring history spans more than 40 countries across five continents. As official U.S. Cultural Ambassadors, Dr. Dina Preston-Ortiz and Don Ortiz have represented American music on international stages, performing for world leaders, diplomatic missions, and communities ranging from urban arts centers to remote regions around the globe.
Their DGLevatEd residencies integrate performance, storytelling, cultural diplomacy, and real-world musicianship. Students gain insight into touring life, entrepreneurship, global music exchange, and the realities of building a long-term career in the arts. The band’s clinics focus on groove, ensemble cohesion, vocal performance, rhythm section integration, and cross-genre musicianship.
Residencies, multi-day school visits, community concerts, and combined ensemble events are available, including programs that align with social studies, world cultures, and contemporary arts curriculum.
Internationally recognized jazz guitarist and recording artist Corey Christiansen is one of the leading voices on the instrument today. His work spans modern jazz, American roots traditions, original compositions, and a long career of high-level teaching at universities, festivals, and workshops around the world.
Christiansen’s residencies focus on improvisation, ensemble interaction, groove-based playing, modern harmonic concepts, and deep stylistic understanding. He offers clinics, masterclasses, sectionals, full-ensemble residencies, and student feature opportunities, all tailored to the needs of each program.
Vinnie Ciesielski is one of the most in-demand lead trumpet players in the industry, known for his power, precision, and versatility across jazz, pop, rock, funk, and commercial styles. As the driving force behind Vinnie and the Hitmen, he brings decades of touring, recording, and show-band experience directly into the classroom.
His residencies deliver high-impact instruction in brass technique, endurance, sound production, section leadership, rhythm-section integration, and real-world performance skills. Vinnie specializes in helping young musicians understand how professional horn lines lock in with groove-based bands, how to build energy on stage, and how to play with authority and intention.
Clinics, masterclasses, sectionals, full-ensemble show-band workshops, and student feature performances are all available.
Mark Hynes is a New York–based saxophonist and educator whose sound carries the lineage of Chicago, Detroit, and the modern NYC scene. Originally from Chicago, Hynes developed his early voice in Detroit’s vibrant jazz community performing with Rodney Whitaker, Bobby Battle, and many of the city’s top working bands.
Now a fixture in New York, he leads his own groups and has recorded and performed with Quincy Jones, Christian McBride, Jon Faddis, Bernard Purdie, Jon Hendricks, Victor Lewis, Max Weinberg, and other major artists across generations.
His latest release, Tribute, features the final unreleased recordings of bassist Dennis Irwin, alongside drummer Darrell Green, offering a rare and powerful snapshot of three deeply connected musicians at peak form.
Hynes’s residencies focus on saxophone performance, improvisation, ensemble communication, small-group jazz language, and the craft of developing a personal sound. His clinics are direct, practical, and rooted in the lived tradition of the American jazz lineage.
Advisory Board & Board of Directors
Mike Vax
Director, Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra | Advisory Board, DGLevatEd
Mike Vax is one of the most active jazz clinicians working in the United States. His fifty-five-year career includes more than four thousand clinics, masterclasses, and concerts. As director of the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, he continues the educational mission that defined Kenton’s contribution to American music instruction. His work in touring, teaching, and service aligns directly with the purpose of DGLevatEd™, which is to bring world-class artistry and mentorship into schools and communities.
David Ellefson
Founding Member and Former Bassist, Megadeth | Advisory Board, DGLevatEd
David Ellefson is a Grammy-winning bassist, author, and producer whose work helped shape the sound of modern American metal. His career includes decades of recording, touring, artist development, and industry leadership. He is a committed advocate for music education and has mentored young musicians across a wide range of genres. His role on the DGLevatEd™ Advisory Board reinforces the program’s emphasis on artistic excellence, educational access, and long-term creative development.
Robert Hurst
Bassist, Composer, Educator | Advisory Board, DGLevatEd
Robert Hurst is an internationally recognized jazz bassist and a tenured professor at the University of Michigan. He has recorded and toured with leading artists including Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, and Diana Krall. His work as a performer and educator places him among the most influential bassists of his generation. As a member of the DGLevatEd™ Advisory Board, he contributes deep expertise in improvisation, ensemble communication, and artistic integrity.
Dr. Dina Preston-Ortiz and Don Ortiz
The Dina Preston Band | Advisory Board, DGLevatEd
Dr. Dina Preston-Ortiz and Don Ortiz are international touring artists and U.S. cultural ambassadors. Their work spans more than forty countries across five continents, integrating performance, education, and cross-cultural collaboration. Their experience demonstrates how music strengthens community and fosters connection. Their place on the DGLevatEd™ Advisory Board supports the organization’s global perspective and its commitment to meaningful, accessible artistic engagement.
Kerri Bilben
Director of Bands, Ashby Public Schools | Board of Directors, DGLevatEd
Kerri Bilben brings more than thirty years of band-directing experience across both large Nevada programs and small rural Minnesota schools. A Bemidji State University alum and longtime colleague of Dr. John Horgeshimer, she comes from the same jazz and brass tradition that shaped the DGLevatEd™ mission. Her career is defined by building sustainable programs in communities where resources are limited and every student counts. Her insight keeps DGLevatEd™ grounded in the daily realities teachers face and ensures the organization stays focused on access, impact, and students first.
Dr. Del Lyren
School of Music, University of Minnesota | Board of Directors, DGLevatEd
Dr. Del Lyren founded DGL Artists™ in 2017, establishing the agency’s first national roster and its early clinic network. He built partnerships with performers including Mike Vax, Robert Hurst, and Vinnie Ciesielski, coordinating masterclasses and educational outreach across the country. As a DGLevatEd™ Board member, he contributes institutional history, organizational discipline, and strategic guidance as the program expands its zero-risk residency model and community reach.
Ty Oldham
Artist, Musician, Visual Creator | Board of Directors, DGLevatEd
Ty Oldham is a multidisciplinary creator whose work spans music, visual art, and design. He began his musical development as a freshman in Dr. John Horgeshimer’s top jazz ensemble, an uncommon placement that signaled his emerging talent. By his junior year, he was named Best Bassist at the 2017 Ball State Jazz Festival. Through Black Wolf Enterprises LLC, he integrates fine art, music, and visual storytelling. On the DGLevatEd™ Board of Directors, he represents emerging creative leadership and the connection between today’s young artists and the legacy they inherit.
Dr. John Horgeshimer
Founder and Executive Director | DGLevatEd
Dr. John Horgeshimer is the founder and driving force behind DGLevatEd™. A veteran educator with nearly two decades of experience in band, jazz, choir, orchestra, and music theory, he built the program to eliminate financial barriers and deliver world-class artist residencies to schools and communities of every size. His background in teaching, artist management, and community partnership informs the DGLevatEd™ mission: high-impact residencies where access is determined by need and vision, not budget.
DGLevatEd™ is led by a four-member Board of Directors and supported by a national Advisory Board of world-class artists, educators, and creative leaders. Together, they provide artistic vision, institutional experience, and real-world insight that shape every residency, ensuring the program remains mission-driven, financially sustainable, and focused on measurable student impact.