Darryl Brenzel (BMI) is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator residing in Frederick, Maryland, and working in the greater Baltimore–Washington area. His current musical pursuits include teaching jazz saxophone at Towson University and Gettysburg College, and jazz arranging at Shenandoah University; leading his own jazz trio and quartet; performing as a free-lance woodwind player; and arranging music for numerous professional and college bands throughout the country.

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Brenzel's career as a performer runs the gamut from working with small groups to big bands to symphony orchestras. He currently leads his own jazz trio and quartet, which has performed in venues in Washington, Baltimore, and New York City, including at the Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, and the East Coast Jazz Festival. He has also performed in pops concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Pittsburgh Pops, the Cincinnati Pops, and others. From 1988–2008, Brenzel was a member of The U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, where he served as saxophone soloist, chief arranger, and eventually associate director. In 2008, Brenzel was recognized by the Maryland State Arts Council with an Individual Artist Award in solo instrumental performance. Brenzel's career as a performer has taken him around the world with performances throughout North America, India, Japan, and Europe. He has appeared at major jazz festivals, including Montreaux, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Nice Jazz Festival, and the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. He has performed with such artists as the Beach Boys, Chris Isaak, Little Anthony, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and many others. 

 

Brenzel had his first formal studies in arranging and composition while attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Further self-directed studies continued through numerous texts on the subject. That hard work paid off with a place in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in NYC from 2003–2005. Here Brenzel further honed his skills by working side by side with such world renowned and Grammy winning composers as Maria Schneider, Michael Abene, and Jim McNeely. In 2007, he won an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council for music composition. During his time with The Jazz Ambassadors, Brenzel added more than 70 works into their book and had pieces recorded on five of their CDs. Brenzel's largest body of work is for big band, but he has also done work for concert band, sax quartet, clarinet quartet, 11–piece jazz band, jazz choir, jazz quintet and sextet, solo pieces for saxophone and piano, solo pieces for flute and piano, and voice with violins. His arrangement/reorchestration of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for jazz orchestra has received much critical praise.