Todd Kelly
Chairperson, Department of Music, Professor of Music, Trumpet and Director of Jazz Ensembles
Constance Hall 105
(309) 677-2594
tkelly@bradley.edu
Biography
Dr. Todd Kelly is the Chair of the Department of Music at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Dr. Kelly teaches trumpet, directs the Bradley Jazz Ensembles and Hilltop Combo, teaches Jazz Improvisation, and serves as an advisor for the Music Business program. The jazz program at Bradley includes a big band, a New Orleans brass band, a combo, and courses in Jazz Improvisation and Jazz History.
Dr. Kelly maintains a busy performing schedule in the Central Illinois area with the Water Street Stompers, Brazilionaires, the Todd Kelly Jazz Quintet, the Central Illinois Jazz Orchestra, Four Other Brothers, JC and the Redemption, Inner Light, and as a freelance jazz and classical musician. He has toured throughout the United States with Indian tabla artist Sandip Burman. He has also performed with Wayne Newton, Jerry Lewis, Charo, the Fifth Dimension, Lesley Gore, Mannheim Steamroller, Maria Schneider, and the national touring companies of Hairspray, Wicked, Mary Poppins, The Rat Pack is Back, Billy Elliot, Chicago, White Christmas, Kinky Boots, The Book of Mormon, and La La Land. Dr. Kelly has been published in Teaching Music, Band World, Downbeat, JAZZed, and The Instrumentalist. His book, “Chet Baker: 21 Selected Solos” is available through Jamey Aebersold Jazz and ejazzlines.com, and he is a contributing author to The Jazzer’s Cookbook, published by Meredith Music, and Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz for Beginning Ensembles, published by GIA Music. In the spring of 2013, Dr. Kelly received the Slane College of Fine Arts Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2018 he received the Slane College Award for Excellence in Scholarship. He is the second faculty member in the history of the college to receive both awards. In 2019-2020, Dr. Kelly was the Artist in Residence with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, performing the American premiere of Iain Hamilton’s Concerto for Jazz Trumpet and Orchestra.
Todd Kelly is an artist/clinician for Conn/Selmer in Elkhart, Indiana. He and his wife Kirsten are the proud parents of Connor and Maren.