Stanford Jazz Workshop Leadership

Cory Combs – Executive Director

Cory Combs is an arts non-profit leader, music festival producer, lecturer, bassist, and composer from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has performed with many internationally known artists, recorded multiple CDs as a leader, and lectured frequently on the history of jazz at major cultural institutions nationwide. Prior to joining Stanford Jazz Workshop, Combs served as the Executive Director of InterMusic, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to supporting professional musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, he directed the Outreach, Music, and Enrichment departments at the Nueva School, and served as Director of Education at SFJAZZ. As an educator, he was the founding Music Director at Waldorf High School in San Francisco, taught music technology, performance, and music history classes at schools throughout the Bay Area, and directed the jazz program at the American Festival of the Arts in Houston, Texas. Combs earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied classical music performance and jazz composition.

Steven Lugerner – Director of Educational and Festival Programming

Steven Lugerner first attended the Stanford Jazz Workshop as a student in 2002. After graduating from Burlingame High School in 2006, Steven moved to New York City to attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music on scholarship. From 2006 through 2013, Steven free-lanced in NYC as a woodwind doubler (Saxophones, Clarinets, Flute, Oboe) and collaborated with the likes of Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Myra Melford, John Hollenbeck, Matt Wilson and Jane Ira Bloom. Steven has released multiple albums of original music to critical acclaim and has been called “an impeccably trained multi-reedist” by the New York Times. In 2013, Lugerner became SJW’s Education Program Coordinator and was promoted to Director of Educational and Festival Programming in 2023.

Mark Hernandez — Development Director

Mark Hernandez (he/him) is a nonprofit professional with decades of experience as an administrator, fundraiser, community organizer, performer/creative, teaching artist, and philanthropy advisor. He served as SJW’s Development Director from 2016 to 2019, and rejoined in 2024. Mark has also had notable tenures at The Trevor Project, an organization committed to ending suicide among LGBTQ+ young people; the San Francisco Symphony, a forward-looking music ensemble; Success Centers, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that supports equity and workforce development; the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, a statewide organization for culture bearers; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a tertiary education institution (and Mark’s alma mater); and San Francisco Opera. As a freelancer, he has worked for dozens of nonprofits of various sizes and missions. Learn more about Mark by visiting his LinkedIn profile. 

Yu-Chun Kuo – Director of Program Operations

Yu-Chun Kuo, native of Taiwan, received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. As a freelance arts management administrator, she worked on various projects such as Play For The Vote, Youth Music Culture Guangdong with Yo-Yo Ma and Michael Stern, and served as the tour manager for Wu Man and the Huayin Shadow Puppet Band’s North American Tour. Prior to joining SJW, she was the Concert Hall and Recital Manager at Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View where she oversaw the community concert series and the facility rental program. Yu-Chun lives in San Mateo with her husband and enjoys baking/cake decorating in her free time.

Jim Nadel – Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus

Alto saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator Jim Nadel founded the Stanford Jazz Workshop in 1972. He continues to serve as the nonprofit organization’s artistic director. In addition to his work with the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Nadel designed the initial jazz studies curriculum for Stanford University’s academic jazz program and has served as a lecturer in the Department of Music since 1986. Nadel received a BA in Music from Stanford University and an MA in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco. He is a former member of the IAJE and a current member of JEN (Jazz Education Network) and the AFM (American Federation of Musicians).