Ron practices quietly in a class room at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music campus at the edge of Park Hill. It's the same kind of horn Wynton Marsalis plays. Ron is here today judging a combo competition of several local schools' jazz combos. Ron himself has students involved in the competition from the Metropolitan State College of Denver, where he teaches and has taught since 1989, after his graduation from the University of Colorado with a master's in music. His undergrad work was completed at University of Denver.
Musicians usually have to teach in order to supplement the unsteady and fragmented income.
I really enjoyed it. And teaching others has definitely made me a better musician. It's true that if I wasn't teaching, I might have to be playing some things I wouldn't necessarily want to be playing. In other schools, you might get too busy to practice, and then you're worried that you'll get reamed when you go in for your lesson the next week. Getting to know him personally, many students can't help but think they got a hell of a steal, paying the low tuition of a state college and getting to study under such a man.