Chris Buckholz is a virtuoso crossover artist in both classical music and jazz. He is Assistant Professor of Trombone at the University of Northern Iowa. Buckholz is an experienced performer and educator, touring internationally and recording extensively, and teaching students at high schools and universities around the United States. He has a solo CD of original compositions to his credit, the 2006 release Muse, and is a performing artist for Conn-Selmer.

From 1997 to 2005, Buckholz was the lead trombonist for the Army Jazz Ambassadors in Washington, D.C.. As a principal soloist with the Jazz Ambassadors, Buckholz was featured in concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Pops. Buckholz is featured as a soloist on four Jazz Ambassadors CDs.

Buckholz has had an extensive freelance career, performing with Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Lou Rawls, Bob Hope, Charley Pride, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Vince Gill, and Rosemary Clooney, among many others. He played on hundreds of studio recording sessions for radio, television, and commercial recordings. Buckholz toured internationally and recorded with The Four Tops. Currently, he is principal trombonist with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and the WCFSO Brass Quintet, and performs with the University of Northern Iowa Brass Quintet, Chris Merz’s X-tet, and in various jazz and classical ensembles around Iowa. He has also performed as assistant principal and second trombone with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his work as a performer, Dr. Buckholz has been an active clinician, lecturing and performing at schools such as New York University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida International University, the University of Memphis, Texas State University, Western Michigan University, the University of Nevada--Las Vegas, the University of Maryland, Loyola University, Belmont University, East Carolina University, the University of North Carolina--Greensboro, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Houston, TX. He was Assistant Professor of Trombone at Bowling Green State University from 1996-1997.

Dr. Buckholz received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University, his Masters of Music from Yale University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers in classical music include Dennis Smith (Los Angeles Philharmonic), John Swallow (New York Brass Quintet), David Langlitz (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Christopher Dudley (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) and Arnold Jacobs (Chicago Symphony Orchestra). He has studied jazz trombone with Conrad Herwig, Curtis Fuller, Steve Davis, Steve Turre, and Jim McFalls, and jazz arranging with Michael Crotty.