Thomas Birkner serves as Director of Instrumental Music at Belleville West High School and teaches improvisation at Southwestern Illinois College. He taught previously at the University of Illinois, Parkland College, and Terre Haute South High School, and has served on the faculty of the Summer Jazz Camp at Eastern Illinois University for over 30 years. A graduate of Eastern Illinois University and the University of Illinois, Dr. Birkner has been recognized as an outstanding soloist by the International Trumpet Guild and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He has maintained an active career as a founding member of the American Music Trio and the New Golden Rule Orchestra, a jazz repertory ensemble. His research has been published by the International Association of Jazz Educators, and he has recorded on Einstein Records, Opus One, and the Sea Breeze Jazz recording labels. He has performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and Chicago's Orchestra Hall, as well as major jazz festivals in Italy, Sweden, and Denmark. He resides in Belleville, Illinois, with his wife Kathryn and children, John, Ryan, and Erin.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul Johnston is active as performer, teacher, and composer. He studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated with highest distinction, and at Indiana University, where he completed a Master's Degree in jazz studies and a Performer Diploma in piano. Paul is at home in a wide variety of musical styles and has performed with artists including Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Nancy Wilson, Monica Mancini, and Bernadette Peters. He is also a member of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra, a professional jazz ensemble in residence at Cleveland State University. Soloists, chamber groups, and jazz ensembles from across the country have performed his compositions and arrangements, and Alfred Music has published several collections of Paul's solo jazz piano arrangements. He has served on the faculty of Eastern Illinois University since 2004, directing a jazz band, coaching combos, and teaching jazz piano, improvisation, and arranging. Paul also taught for eight summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and is an alumnus of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute and the Henry Mancini Institute.