Education
Sturm studied at Lawrence University, the University of North Texas College of Music, and the Eastman School of Music.
Sturm studied at Lawrence University, the University of North Texas College of Music, and the Eastman School of Music.
He played trombone and performed with the jazz nonet Matrix from 1974 to 1977. He served as Director of Jazz Studies at Lawrence University from 1977 to 1991, then joined the Eastman School of Music faculty as professor of jazz composition/arranging, conductor of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and Studio Orchestra, and chair of the Eastman Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Department. In 2002, he returned home to Wisconsin to direct the Lawrence University Jazz and Improvisational Music Department and hold the Kimberly-Clark Endowed Professorship in Music.
Daughter Madeline Sturm is a New York based artist and musician.
Sturm has conducted the Human Resources Hessischer Rundfunk) Big Band in Frankfurt. The NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) Big Band in Hamburg.
The Bohuslän Big Band in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Klüvers Big Band in Aarhus, Denmark.
The Arendal Big Band in Arendal, Norway.
And numerous collegiate and state honors high school jazz ensembles in the United States of America. He has served as a visiting professor at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium (Royal Conservatory) in Denmark and the Associazone Italian Gordon per l"Apprendimento Musicale in Rome. Down Beat magazine has cited his university jazz ensembles with 9 Student Music Awards. He was a co-owner of Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps.
Sturm"s Migrations, a musical plea for world unity made up of indigenous music from 22 countries, was premiered by vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the NDR Big Band in 2007 and toured Europe the following summer.
He arranged and recorded two extensive Civil Defense projects, Libertango: Hommage an Astor Piazzolla and Do lieutenant Again: Three Decades of Steely Dan with the Human Resources Big Band. He is the Artistic Director, composer, and arranger for The Baseball Music Project, a concert program collaboration with the Baseball Hall of Fame that has been performed by the Boston Pops and symphony orchestras in Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Miami, Detroit, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and San Diego.
On Laboratory 2010 (released September 2010), the One O"Clock Laboratory Band recorded Sturm"s recent arrangement, Pretzel Logic, a composition by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Pretzel Logic was the title cut on a 1974 album by Steely Dan.
While studying at the University of North Texas College of Music in the 1970s, Sturm was a member of the One O"Clock Laboratory Band, which has produced dozens of professionally engineered albums, 48 of which are part of UNT Jazz Department"s annual Laboratory Band recording project launched in 1967.