Dr. Gordon Vernick is an Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Georgia State University. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY; a Master of Music in Education from the University of Miami, and a Doctor of Arts in Trumpet Performance and Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley.

As a professional trumpet player, he has performed in all musical mediums from symphony orchestra to jazz quartet and has freelanced in Miami, New York, Denver, Kansas City, and the Caribbean Islands. He is currently active in the Southeast United States as a clinician, an adjudicator, and as a freelance trumpet player.

As a jazz educator he is the past president of the Georgia Association of Jazz Educators, past chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators Curriculum Committee and was recently appointed as the Southeast Coordinator of that organization. He was the Director of the NARAS Georgia Grammy High School Jazz Band from 1994 to 1999. He is the co-editor of the book Teaching Jazz: A Course Of Study, published by MENC. He recently co-wrote the college textbook, Jazz History Overview, published by Kendall-Hunt which has been adopted by numerous universities around the country.

He is director he GSU Faculty Jazztet which performs regularly in Atlanta area schools and has appeared at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the Brasstown Music Festival, Oxford University Music Series and many other venues in the southeast. He has performed with such world-renown jazz artists as Kenny Werner, Clare Fischer, John Hart, Kevin Hays, Conrad Herwig, Marc Copland, Randy Brecker, Paul McCandless, and many others. The Jazztet was twice invited to perform in San Jose, Costa Rica by the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano. During the summer of 2001 the Jazztet performed in Moscow, Russia at the Tribute to Willis Conover Jazz Festival and in March 2003 performed at Capitol University in Beijing, China. The group was invited to perform in November 2004 at the Curso e Colegio Bardal in Florianopolis, Brazil. As a jazz clinician he served a residency at the Conservatory of San Juan, P.R. and the Taipei American School in Taiwan this past school year.