Eric Staffeldt is currently the director of the Claim Jumpers Ensemble, joining the faculty of the University of Colorado Denver in January 2012. An Indiana native, Eric received a Bachelor of Music degree from Butler University and a Master of Arts degree in composition from the University of Denver. As an active freelance trombonist, he frequently appears with area swing and traditional jazz bands and performs regularly with the Queen City Jazz Band. Eric also plays New Orleans brass band style funk, pop, and R&B with the Colorado troupe of the Brass Animals and the Fat City Mardi Gras Band. As a performer and clinician, Eric has appeared at numerous jazz festivals including the Evergreen Jazz Festival, Evergreen, Colorado; the Mile High Jazz Festival, Denver, Colorado; the Arizona Classic Jazz Festival, Phoenix, Arizona; the Cedar Basin Jazz Festival, Cedar Falls, Iowa; and Jazz en Vercors, Villard de Lans, France. Eric teaches privately and also works annually with area elementary through high school band students as a low brass instructor for the Denver Public Schools Citywide Band program. As a composer/arranger, he has written and arranged commissions for the Colorado Wind Ensemble, the Denver Pops Orchestra, the Boulder Concert Band, the Queen City Jazz Band, and the Park Hill Brass Quintet.