Stardust Big Band

Founded in 1990, the 17 member Stardust Big Band has entertained dancers and jazz lovers on the Olympic Peninsula by playing standards from the Great American Songbook with devotion to excellence and the great music they perform. The extensive library includes classic charts from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glen Miller, Buddy Rich and many more. Stardust members come from Bremerton, Kingston, Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Sequim to keep the great sound of alive and thriving.

Stardust consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass drums, and vocalist. They have performed for dancing, and for listening joy, at many venues, including regular appearances at summer concert series and special events. The motivation driving the Stardust Big Band is the desire to create good music and to present the treasured repertoire of the unique sound of this unique American art form.

Vocalist Tess Teal will sing several well known standards, and the ensemble will present instrumental classics made famous by Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Glenn Miller, Tom Kubis, and others. Featured soloists are Bill Cole, Alto Sax, Dick Thorsen, Tenor Sax, Ed Donahue, Trumpet, and George Radebaugh, piano.

Musical Director of Stardust is Tom Guenther, who is also Director of Bands at Kingston High School. Tom is a graduate of the highly respected Jazz Studies Program at Washington State University, where he studied under Greg Yasinitsky and played Alto Sax in the Jazz Big Band. Tom began his tenure with Stardust in the Spring of 2021, when the band returned to rehearsing after a year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stardust is a true regional orchestra with players from Port Angeles, Sequim, Bremerton, Port Townsend, Discovery Bay and Port Ludlow.

To visit Stardust Big Band's Website, click Here.