Jessica Diaz

Percussion / Piano

Jessie first got into music when she joined her middle school orchestra on the violin in 8th grade. Although she continued playing string instruments in high school, she noticed how much fun her classmates were having in the band, and made the choice to also take on percussion. Throughout high school she received private lessons on both drums and the viola. Once she realized the range of styles and genres of percussion music, she made the choice to solely study percussion in college.  

After studying with the classical percussion program at Metropolitan State University of Denver for a year, she joined a jazz combo, which showed her the world of free music and improvisation. By the next semester, she added the jazz performance degree to her work load and has since worked on developing her skills in both classical percussion and jazz vibraphone and drum set. Since first beginning her music career, Jessie has maintained a steady schedule of attending private lessons spanning nearly a decade. She has studied privately with Denver’s own Shane Endsley, Greg Tanner Harris, Dru Heller, and Mark Foster. In 2020, she was awarded a scholarship by the Zeta Zeta members of Delta Omnicron International Music Fraternity for her musicianship. She finds joy in performing all genres of music, and currently participates in the Colorado Wind Ensemble and as one half of the band JEMLE.