Warren Ertle is a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz pianist based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The University of Alabama. A native of Central Mississippi, Ertle earned degrees in Music Composition from Mississippi College (B.M.) and The Boston Conservatory (M.M.). Ertle has a passion for American Popular Music from the 1910s-1940s, collects and archives original music from the period, and is often influenced by those styles in his own compositions. He is an avid performer of this music and founded GreenLight Jazz Orchestra in 2019, an early jazz and new music ensemble for which he served as bandleader, pianist, until 2020. The band performed on the main stage in Copley Square during Boston’s New Years Eve celebration “FirstNight”, and was featured on NBC Boston during Mardi Gras 2020.

 

In 2016, Warren Ertle enlisted in the United States Army as a pianist and percussionist in the Forty-First Army Band (Mississippi National Guard) where he continues to serve as the band’s staff arranger. He also served in the 215th Army Band (Massachusetts National Guard) from 2017-2020. When Ertle is not composing or on the bandstand, he is a busy “sideman” and has performed with Vince Giordano, Dan Gabel and the Abletones, Brigade Big Band, Protocol Jazz Combo, and performs regularly with Category VI Jazz Combo. He remains an active performer of classical music as well, and has performed with the Mississippi Wind Symphony, the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra (Jackson, MS), and the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, Ertle performed with the Boston Conservatory Orchestra at Symphony Hall with guest artist, Silk Road Ensemble.

 

Ertle’s music has been performed by Verismo Trio, cellist Jesse Christenson of HUB New Music, percussionists Jason Mathena and Joe Kulick, Mississippi College Symphonic Winds, Hinds Community College Bands, the Forty-First Army Band, tenor Thulani Mnisi, organist Robert Knupp, Boston Conservatory Chorus, Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, and the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra (Jackson, MS). In 2021, Ertle won first prize in The National Federation of Music Club’s “American Music in the U.S. Armed Forces Composition Competition.” He has also won a Vox Novus call for scores featuring the Verismo Trio, and the Henry Belleman Fine Arts Award. Past commissions include Hinds Community College Wind Ensemble, Delta State University Wind Ensemble, percussionist Jason Mathena, soprano Satrina Massey, and Jason Baker/Mississippi Percussive Arts Society. 

 

Warren Ertle is a board member of the American Big Band Preservation Society Inc., and is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America.