Faculty

Dr. Coker is a jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger, who immediately prior to joining The New School was a Full Professor with Tenure at Western Oregon University. Dr. Coker was educated at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Jazz Studies, a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance, and completed coursework for a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology.

During Coker’s esteemed career, he founded the American Metropole Orchestra, served as executive director of the Smith Fine Arts Series, arranged music for Kurt Elling, Cuong Vu, Martha Reeves, Joe Lovano, and Allen Toussaint, produced shows for Aiofe O’Donovan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, the Turtle Island Quartet, and Sean Jones, and has developed and taught an extraordinarily wide range of courses including songwriting, early music ensemble, jazz composition, brass seminar, ethnomusicology, music history, improvisation, world music, music theory, popular music in America, and more.