The Raleigh Jazz Orchestra is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. John Entzi as the Musical Director. John serves as director of Concert Bands and Jazz Ensembles at North Carolina State University. He received a B.M.E. degree (1974) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the M.A. (1978) from Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, and the D.M.A. (1998) in trumpet performance from the University of South Carolina at Columbia, South Carolina.

Dr. Entzi has toured and performed extensively throughout the Southeast, where he performed with Holiday on Ice, Disney on Parade, The Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus, The Henry Busse Orchestra, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Guy Lombardo, Vaughn Monroe, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman Orchestra, Atlantic Jazz Orchestra, When Swing Was King, Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and the U.S. Air Jazz Orchestra. He has also performed with such notables as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Nancy Wilson, The Four Tops, The Spinners, The Temptations, Anita Bryant, Martha Raye, Bernadette Peters, Patti Page, Johnnie Ray, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. He has performed with the Saint Joseph Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the Greensboro Symphony, the Fayetteville Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic and is a charter member of the Charlotte Repertory Orchestra.

Dr. Entzi is an active member of the National Band Association, the International Association of Jazz Educators, the American School Band Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, International Trumpet Guild, and the College Band Directors National Conference. Dr. Entzi is also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Kappa Lambda and the Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternity.