Justin Kauflin brings a rare combination of world-class performance experience and deeply personal storytelling to every educational setting he visits. As a faculty member at the Governor's School for the Arts in Virginia and a U.S. Department of State Jazz Ambassador — a title once held by his mentor Quincy Jones — Justin has led clinics, master classes, and residencies for students from high school through university level across the United States and around the world.

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His connection to jazz's living tradition is direct and extraordinary. At William Paterson University, Justin studied under great jazz pianists James Williams and Mulgrew Miller, and the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry, whose first student was a young Quincy Jones. That lineage — Terry to Jones to Kauflin — shapes everything he brings into the classroom: a deep respect for mentorship, an emphasis on listening, and the belief that jazz is ultimately about human connection.