Faculty Spotlight: Ron Bland

Meet Ron Bland

Biography and Professional Achievements

Ron Bland has been a professional musician for over forty years, playing virtually all styles of music in every setting from concert hall to theatre to the recording studio. At home on both the electric and double basses, he has performed with jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Eddie Daniels, Billy Taylor, and Doc Severinson. Bland has appeared with the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Springs Philharmonic orchestras as well as in performance with Earth Wind and Fire, Yes, Andrea Bocelli, Pavarotti, Marvin Hamlisch, Linda Ronstadt, Rosemary Clooney, Billy Crystal, and many others.

He is often in the pit for touring Broadway shows, including “Legally Blonde,” “A Chorus Line,” and “The Color Purple.” In 2003, with the Denver Jazz Quartet, Ron Bland performed as a featured headliner at the Queenstown International Jazz Festival in New Zealand. As part of the Rocky Mountain Trio & Park Hill Brass Nonet, he has performed at the Jazz in the Vercors Festival in Villard de Lans, France, several times. He has also been a clinician for the workshop associated with the festival. Bland has performed extensively throughout the United States, including the 2001 Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. Internationally, he has performed in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. He is on the music faculty at Colorado Christian University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the University of Colorado at Denver. He teaches private applied lessons on acoustic and electric bass, ensembles, and a sightreading and improvisation class.