About Doug
A true friend is always there, can belly laugh, is loved by generations of students, plays great trumpet, can arrange, makes things happen, has guru-like “people radar”, is disliked by no one, has cool model trains, gets Bobby Shew a doctorate, runs a festival bigger than Newport, knows about the best pencil for composers and instinctively knows the real stuff of life. That’s Doug Beach…..my true friend."
Doug Beach is a performer, publisher, educator and an award- winning composer/arranger.
At Elmhurst University, where he taught 1978-2021, he served as director of the widely acclaimed Elmhurst College Jazz Band and as director of jazz studies. Under his direction, the Jazz Band made over 30 European tours (twice at the invitation of the U.S. State Department) and performed in jazz festivals across the world. The band regularly appeared with jazz greats such as Doc Severinsen, Gary Smulyan, Dennis Mackrel, Nicholas Payton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin, Lee Konitz, Jeff Hamilton, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, and Bobby Shew.
The band and its members were frequent award winners in Downbeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards. In 2014 the Elmhurst College Jazz Band was named by Downbeat as the winner in the large jazz ensemble category for undergraduate institutions.
Beach is equally well known for his work as a publisher and composer. His company, Doug Beach Music, is one of the world’s leading publishers of educational jazz music, and each year since 1995 he has been the recipient of a Plus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). In 1996, the Count Basie Orchestra and New York Voices recorded his arrangement of “Cottontail” on a CD that went on to win the Grammy Award for best large jazz ensemble. Other awards include a 2003 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Elmhurst University (the University’s highest teaching award), the 2012 Faculty Merit Award and a 2015 Jazz Education Achievement Award from Downbeat Magazine.
Honors and Awards
- Grammy Award, Arranging for Count Basie Orchestra and the New York Voices – Best Large Jazz Ensemble, Awards year 1996
- American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Plus Award in composition – each year since 1995
- Elmhurst University Presidents Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2003
- DownBeat Magazine Achievement Award in Jazz Education, 2015
- Elmhurst University Faculty Merit Award, 2012
- International Association for Jazz Education – Illinois Unit – Jazz Education Hall of Fame 2008
- City of Elmhurst Civic Hall of Fame, 2013
- Quinlan & Fabish Chicagoland Outstanding Music Educator Award, 2018
- DownBeat Magazine – Student Music Awards – Elmhurst College Jazz Band – Winner in Undergraduate Large Jazz Ensemble category, 2014
A Yamaha performing artist and clinician, Beach plays Yamaha trumpets and flugelhorns. For information regarding performances, master classes, or clinics, please contact Yamaha Artist Relations at (317) 524-6270.
