Bob Athayde
For over forty years, Bob Athayde has been a music educator teaching students from fourth grade to university level. He has taught Concert Band, Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, Jazz Piano, String Orchestra, and Choir and provided assistance with curriculum development and innovative pedagogical approaches for music educators in the Bay area.
Athayde taught at Stanley Middle School in Lafayette, California for thirty-eight years where he built a nationally recognized and award-winning music program. The Stanley Jazz Messengers were selected to perform in the inaugural middle school portion of the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival. Several of his students have won “Outstanding Musician” awards from Downbeat magazine, and have gone on to prestigious music schools such as Juilliard, Berklee School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, USC, The University of Michigan, The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and Oberlin College.
Bob is a highly sought-after clinician and guest artist nationally and has appeared as a performer and clinician at the Sitka Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and the U.C. Berkeley Jazz Festival. He has taught improvisation at Suzuki Workshops in Hawaii, California, Washington, and Utah. Athayde also serves as the Director of the Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, providing participants with an inspiring and nurturing learning environment to study jazz for over 20 years.
In 1990, Athayde received the CMEA Bay Section Gilbert T. Freitas Annual Memorial Award for Achievement in Music Education. Athayde was named California Band Educator of the Year in 2005, CMEA Bay Section Outstanding Music Educator in 2007, and 2008 received the Warren Eukel Teacher Trust Award and Grant. In 2013, he received the California Music Educators’s Bay Section Jazz Educator of the Year.
Bob has performed and taught with many legendary jazz artists including Roberta Gamborini, Madeline Eastman, Paquito D’Rivera, Sean Jones, Bijon Watson, Ira Nepus, Steve Turre, Bill Watrous, Alan Ferber, John Clayton, John Hamar, Kristen Korb, Akira Tana, Mark Ferber, Clayton Cameron, and more. He continues to perform as a solo pianist, Hammond B-3 organist, electric keyboard, and synthesizer artist in duos, trios, and larger ensembles including big bands.
