Jim Stombres

Jazz I Studio Band Director | Wind Ensemble Retreat Co-Director | St. Charles, IL

Jim Stombres taught for 37 years and retired in 2015 as Band Director at St. Charles North High School. Stombres holds a Diploma in Sacred Music from Moody Bible Institute, a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Illinois State University, and a Masters in Music Education from Northwestern University. He has been active in the Illinois Music Educators Association and served as All-State Jazz Audition Chairman for 25 years. He has served as ILMEA Jazz Chair for District I, VII, and IX.

Stombres completed three trips to Germany with the Jazz Ensemble from Naperville North High School, and performed at the 1997 Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic with the Naperville North Wind Ensemble and colleague Brian Wis. He traveled to Germany in 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2014 with colleague John Wojciechowski and the St. Charles North Jazz Workshop. The St. Charles North Jazz Workshop, with colleague Mark Dahl, was selected as a finalist in the Essentially Ellington Competition, performing at the Lincoln Center in May of 2004, and with colleague John Wojciechowski in 2011. They were also selected to perform at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in 2006 and 2011. They performed at the 2007 IAJE Conference in New York, and the 2008 and 2013 ILMEA All-State Conference.

Stombres has been a guest director for many District level ILMEA Festivals, and conducted the 1999 All-State Jazz Band. He was the recipient of the 2018 John Paynter Lifetime Achievement Award, and has served on the faculty of the Birch Creek Music Academy for more than three decades.