About Gilford Cole

I'm a native of Richmond, VA, attending Hermitage HS and Virginia Commonwealth University, and have been a working musician since 1979. While majoring in Clarinet in college, I became more involved with the saxophone and spent the first 20 years of my career playing and writing for horn sections of various rock and jazz groups, and as a woodwind doubler in theatre pit orchestras. In 1999, I toured the US & Europe in the stage band for Blackbirds of Broadway.

In more recent years, I've been more involved in freelance work, particularly in niche bands (Klezmer, German, Jazz, Western Swing) playing Clarinet. Since 2007, I've also been music director at Bethlehem Baptist Church, where I lead the choir & praise team and also play guitar and bass. One of my greatest strengths as a teacher is this variety of performance experiences as well as an intimate knowledge of how band & orchestra instruments interface with rhythm instruments, and how musicians who read music can interface with non-readers.

In my spare time I enjoy bicycling, amateur radio (c/s N4JRI) and photography.