Dr. Jessica Pearce is a founding member of Calypsus Brass, Instructor of Horn at Eastern Illinois University, and Assistant Principal/Utility Horn of the Illinois Symphony. She freelanced in the Chicago area from 2011 until 2015 when she moved to Champaign, IL to pursue a DMA at the University of Illinois. Dr. Pearce's dissertation project focused on the influence of jazz in modern solo horn repertoire.  

Primary Teachers:

University of Illinois: Bernhard Scully and Jim Pugh (improvisation lessons)

University of Michigan: Adam Unsworth and Bryan Kennedy

Illinois Wesleyan University: Christine Janicki

Neil Kimel of the Lyric Opera of Chicago

David Griffin of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Education

D.M.A. University of Illinois, 2018

M.M. University of Michigan, 2011

B.M. Illinois Wesleyan University, 2009