Antonio García completed his 35th year of full-time university teaching in May 2022, including posts at Northern Illinois, Northwestern, and Virginia Commonwealth universities, directing jazz programs for 27 of those years. He and his wife, Mary, are moving back to their native New Orleans in Summer 2022 so as to reunite with their family there, where he expects to discover the next chapter of his career.
He leaves the VCU Jazz Program with gifts and pledges that will mature to $5.5 million by 2040 (over half of that currently in hand), an expanded curriculum, a partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and the Program’s significant track record for the advocacy of social justice.
Tony continues to serve as a board member of The Midwest Clinic music conference, Associate Jazz Editor of the International Trombone Association Journal, and a Bach trombone clinician for Conn-Selmer. In Fall 2022 he marks his fiftieth year of playing the trombone!
Congratulations Tony!