Antonio J. García is an Associate Professor of Music, Director of Jazz Studies, and Coordinator of Music Business at Virginia Commonwealth University. An alumnus of the Eastman School and of Loyola of the South, he has received commissions for jazz, symphonic, chamber, and solo works (instrumental and vocal) including grants from Meet The Composer, The Commission Project, The Thelonious Monk Institute, The Wolf Trap Foundation For The Arts, and regional arts councils. His music has aired internationally and has been performed by such artists as Sheila Jordan, Arturo Sandoval, Bobby Shew, Denis DiBlasio, James Moody, and Nick Brignola. Composition/arrangement honors include IAJE (jazz band), ASCAP (orchestral), and Billboard Magazine (pop songwriting), with works have published by Kjos Music, Kendor Music, Doug Beach Music, Walrus, UNC Jazz Press, and Three-Two Music Publications.

A Bach/Selmer trombone clinician, Mr. García has freelanced as trombonist, bass trombonist, or pianist with over 70 nationally renowned artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Mel Tormé, Doc Severinsen, Louie Bellson, and Phil Collins, and has performed at the Montreux, Nice, North Sea, Pori (Finland), New Orleans, and Chicago Jazz Festivals. He has produced recordings or broadcasts of such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Jim Pugh, Dave Taylor, Susannah McCorkle, and Sir Roland Hanna. An avid scat-singer, he has performed vocally with jazz bands and choirs. He is also a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). A New Orleans native, he also performed there with such local artists as Pete Fountain, Ronnie Kole, Irma Thomas, and Al Hirt.

Mr. García is Associate Jazz Editor of the International Trombone Association Journal. Within the International Association for Jazz Education he served as Past Editor of the Jazz Education Journal, Past President of IAJE-IL, and past International Co-Chair for Curriculum and for Vocal/Instrumental Integration. His new book, Cutting the Changes: Jazz Improvisation via Key Centers (Kjos Music) offers musicians of all ages the opportunity to improvise over standard tunes using just their major scales. He is Co-Editor and Contributing Author of Teaching Jazz: A Course of Study (published by MENC). He served on the Illinois Coalition for Music Education coordinating committee, worked to develop standards for multi-cultural music education, and received a curricular grant from the Council for Basic Education. He has also served as Director of IMEA's All-State Jazz Choir and Combo and of similar ensembles outside of Illinois. He is the recipient of the Illinois Music Educators Association's 2001 Distinguished Service Award.

A member of the board of The Midwest Clinic, Mr. García has adjudicated festivals and presented clinics in Canada, Europe, Australia, and South Africa, including creativity workshops for Motorola, Inc.'s international management executives. He has served as adjudicator for the International Trombone Association's Frank Rosolino Jazz Trombone Scholarship competition and Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble competition and has been asked to serve on Arts Midwest's "Midwest Jazz Masters" panel and the Virginia Commission for the Arts panel. He has been repeatedly published in Down Beat; Music, Inc.; The International Musician; The Instrumentalist; and the journals of MENC, IAJE, ITA, American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Percussive Arts Society, Arts Midwest, Illinois Music Educators Association, and Illinois Association of School Boards. Previous to VCU, he served as Associate Professor and Coordinator of Combos at Northwestern University, where he taught jazz and integrated arts, was Jazz Coordinator for the National High School Music Institute, and for four years directed the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Formerly the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University, he was selected by students and faculty there as the recipient of a 1992 "Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching" award and nominated as its candidate for 1992 CASE "U.S. Professor of the Year" (one of 434 nationwide).