Trombonist Melissa Gardiner has been described by Curtis Fuller as technically creative and emotionally powerful. Her improvisation is inspiring and motivating for the listener, and she draws you in with a raw expression that directly relates to life experience. Throughout her career she has worked with several notable musicians including Aretha Franklin, The Tempatations, Geri Allen, Wycliffe Gordon, Steve Turre, Gerald Wilson, Patti Austin, Tia Fuller, Ingrid Jensen, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Vulfpeck. As a bandleader, she has released four albums, Transitions (2011), Second Line Syracuse (2016), Empowered (2019) which features prominent jazz women Tia Fuller (Beyonce) and Ingrid Jensen, and The NOVA Collective (2023). Gardiner has won several awards including two Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMYS) for Best Jazz Album (2016, 2019), and a Grand Prize Winner at the International Jazz Competition in Bucharest, Romania (2018). In addition to an active performance career, Gardiner has teaching credentials at Syracuse University, Le Moyne College and Cornell University and has been recognized as an outstanding educator in many settings, including as a finalist for the National Music and Arts Educator of the Year award (2017), as an inductee to the Liverpool High School Fine Arts Hall of Fame (2018) and a Lifetime Educator of the Year award for the SAMMYS Hall of Fame (2019). Gardiner received her master’s degree in jazz performance at The Juilliard School where she studied with Steve Turre. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree at The University of Michigan where she studied with Dennis Wilson (jazz) and David Jackson (classical). Former teachers also include Bill Harris, Curtis Fuller and Wycliffe Gordon. She is an artist for BAC Musical Instruments and plays on a BAC Custom Trombone.