Bill Emery has been playing music since he was 7 years old. Growing up in the Minneapolis Minnesota area he had a wide variety of influences from Lawrence Welk and all the musical entertainment on TV in the 1960’s to his older brother who was an accomplished accordionist and school and Army band musician.

Bill self-taught himself to read music with an accordion and then played tuba through his school years, adding trombone after being inspired at a concert by Stan Kenton. 

Bill has travelled with the John Stafford Big Band Sound and attended the University of Texas at Dallas attaining degrees in Music Performance, Commercial Music, and Music Education. He has led his own groups since 1978 playing big band music and small group jazz. 

After arriving in Colorado Springs he formed the New Century Big Band as a community-focused group. He led this band until taking a “semi-retirement" to return to school to get a degree in nursing and he now works as a RN (Med-Surg/Stroke) at a local hospital. 

Since returning from this "semi-retirement" he has led his own group, the Bill Emery Band (with 4-16 players), plays in the Bare Bones Trombone Choir, and is a member of Swingin’ Sweeney and the Moldy Figs (Southern Colorado’s premier “swing” band). He released a jazz quintet CD this year titled “It Is What It Is: Songs for my Father and other Jazz” and has recently been recording a number of original songs.