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Brian Perez received his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he developed a passion for jazz and other woodwind instruments, in addition to the saxophone. Mr. Perez participated in all forms of music on a wide range of instruments during his undergrad. He was first chair saxophonist in the wind ensemble, first chair clarinetist in the orchestra, lead tenor in the jazz band, and frequently played in the pit orchestra for musicals. During his time at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he had the opportunity of playing with many famous jazz artists including Conrad Herwig, Byron Stripling, and Ernie Watts. Outside of school he had weekly jobs playing in a jazz quartet and a funk ensemble. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies.

After graduating he moved to Barcelona, Spain to study music and the Castilian language. He took classes at the L’Aula Conservatori Del Liceu which has a partner program with the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In addition, he played professionally in his own jazz trio and taught lessons privately. On returning to the United States, he was picked up by a national tour of the musical, “Singin’ in the Rain,” and later in the year played in the national tour of “Oklahoma!” In both shows he was playing the first reed book on saxophone, clarinet, flute and piccolo. During his tours he auditioned and was accepted into the masters program at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Here he studied under Gary Keller on saxophone and Maria Castillo on flute. He took classes in Jazz Arranging, Jazz Composition, and Digital Recording. In addition to his studies, he played professionally around the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. Brian graduated with academic honors with a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy.

After Graduating from the University of Miami, he began his college-level teaching career at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus. By the end of the summer, he was offered a full-time position as professor of woodwinds, music theory, and music history at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. Brian hopes to someday get his doctorate in woodwind pedagogy.
 
Mr. Perez is the director of the UMES pep band, jazz combo, saxophone quartet, and woodwind quintet. The UMES pep band consists of music majors and non-majors and performs regularly for the Hawks' home basketball games. The pep band adds the energy and excitement to the basketball games that only live music can do. The pep band encourages a fun but challenging learning atmosphere and performs standard pep band repertoire mixed with modern pop tunes. The jazz combo consists of three horns with rhythm section and focuses on the development of students' abilities in the small group jazz setting. The combo concentrates on standard repertoire and small group arrangements as well as originals from the members of the ensemble. Improvisation is central to the jazz combo and is developed through discussion on theory, listening, transcribing, and application. The saxophone quartet and woodwind quintet are classical chamber ensembles focusing on serious concert literature. The ensembles focus on the exploration of performance practice from a wide variety of styles and periods - developing musicality, expressivity, and individuality - all while functioning cooperatively as an ensemble. The ensembles perform for the UMES gala, midterm recitals, and the chamber music recital at the end of each semester.