Ross Strauser

jazz saxophone

Email: ross26@usf.edu
Phone: (406) 270-5734
Office: MUS 367

Ross Strauser has served on USF’s Music Faculty since 2022, teaching Jazz Saxophone, Jazz Composition and Arranging, and Jazz Ensemble II. He earned his master’s degree in Jazz Studies with an emphasis in Jazz Composition from USF, and bachelor’s degrees in Instrumental Performance and Jazz Studies from The University of Montana.

Strauser has studied and performed with artists such as Erica von Kleist, Loren Stillman, Remy Le Boeuf, Chuck Owen, James Suggs, and Jack Wilkins. He has played and recorded with many groups around the states of Montana and Florida including The Latin Jazz Knights, George Pennington and the Odyssey, The Rod Alnord Quartet, The Ross Strauser Trio, Tonal Imagination Jazz Collective, and The Fertile Crescent.

In 2022, Ross presented his original composition, “Sing Sing Chair” at the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers Symposium in Austin, Texas. He also won the 2023 David P. and Susan W. Wohlheuter Jazz Composition Contest at Ithaca College with his original work, “The Mellow Fellow and the Fly”. This work received a world premiere at Ithaca College and featured esteemed guitarist, Peter Bernstein. Most recently, he is the composer and leader of The Ross Strauser Jazz Orchestra, which released its debut album, Endless Ties, in May of 2023.