Valerie Gillespie

Valerie Gillespie is a faculty member at Florida Southern College. She earned her BFA from Carnegie Mellon with a major in Classical Saxophone and her MM in Jazz Saxophone from the University of South Florida. Ms. Gillespie recently had the honor of being the feature artist in Saxophone Today Magazine. Gillespie has played with national icons including Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Rosemary Clooney, George Burns, Ben Vereen, Natalie Cole, Joan Rivers, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, John Faddis, Steve Allen, Anthony Newly, Dionne Warwick, Michael Feinstein, and many more. Ms Gillespie traveled with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra throughout the United States and Japan. She also performs and records regularly with Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge, with whom she recorded the Grammy Award nominated CDs, “River Runs” and “Whispers in The Wind”. Additionally, she leads her own jazz group that performs frequently in the Tampa Bay area and has produced numerous CDs in which she plays all the saxophones, flutes, and clarinet, and sings as well. Her most recent jazz CD is entitled “Lush Life” which includes music by Chick Corea and Billy Strayhorn.  She is frequently a featured artist with The Florida Orchestra, and has performed at many jazz festivals including The Suncoast Jazz Classic, The Main Street Jazz Festival in Nashville, and The Clearwater Jazz Holiday.