Jon Waite is a recognized teacher of 16 years who has directed award-winning and life-changing instrumental ensembles of high school students at schools in two states.

He graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he studied conducting and saxophone with well-known and respected teachers James Arrowood, David Hastings and Charles Rochester Young. Programs under Mr. Waite’s direction have continually garnered reputations for quality and he demonstrably increased both participation and quality in the programs he has directed.

Mr. Waite was recently selected to receive the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s Music Teacher of the Year award (2014) and has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who in Education in multiple years. He was also recognized recently as Milwaukee radio station B93.3′s Teacher of the Month (November 2013) as well as by the Hamilton Education Foundation with the Class Act award (2010), among others.

Mr. Waite currently serves as Director of Instrumental Music at Hamilton High School in Sussex, Wisconsin, where he directs the Charger Marching Band, Wind Symphony and Symphonic bands, Jazz Ensemble 1 and 2, Pep Band and various chamber groups.

Additionally, Mr. Waite serves as resident Director of Symphonic and Jazz Ensembles and is the instructor of saxophone at the Fine Arts Camp Europe each summer near Prague, Czech Republic and has served as both clinician, soloist and conductor for several honor band festivals in that country.

He serves the Wisconsin School Music Association as a judge and clinician for festivals around the state and also performs professionally in several groups as well as in a freelance capacity. Mr. Waite is on the Board of Directors for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Youth Outreach Wind Ensembles. Mr. Waite also serves on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue, Inc.