Electric Guitar, Jazz, Pop music, Rock Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble
Wyatt Ambrose
Lecturer in Music & Artist in Residence
Wyatt Ambrose is a guitarist, composer, and educator devoted to exploration in and expression through contemporary music. He approaches his work with an open heart to all forms of great music, creating a distinct and honest style that is reflective of his life experience.
Based in Oneonta NY, Wyatt is an active performer in the upstate NY music scene and appears regularly as a sideman, leader, and co-leader of several projects. Wyatt has had the privilege of performing with venerated regional and internationally recognized artists including Sara Caswell, Godwin Louis, Tarik Shah, Eric Finland, Keith Pray, Dylan Perrillo, Blake Fleming, Kaitlyn Fay, Evan Jagels, and Chris Riffle. He has performed at venues such as The Bitter End, Rockland Music Hall, Cleopatra’s Needle, Jazz on Main, Nietzsche’s, and The Van Dyck Music Club.
In 2022, Wyatt co-founded the indie-jazz group Killdeer Trio with drummer Sebastian Green and bassist Evan Jagels. The trio has independently released two albums featuring all original music written and arranged by the band. They opened for the Joel Frahm Trio at the 2024 Alias Winter Jazz Fest (Troy NY), and have collaborated with both violinist Sara Caswell, and saxophonist Laura Andrea Leguía (Gabriel Alegria’s Afro-Peruvian sextet).
In February 2025, Ambrose released his debut album, Up There, featuring all original music that reflects on his experience growing up in and returning to rural NY state. Up There was created through the 2024 Earlville Opera House NYSCA funded individual artist grant.
Wyatt received his B.M. in Jazz Studies from SUNY Purchase where he studied with esteemed musicians including Jon Faddis, Vic Juris, Paul Meyers, and Kenny Washington. While at Purchase, Wyatt performed with the Purchase Latin-Jazz Orchestra at the Birdland Jazz Club in Manhattan, as well as Technos College’s Fall festival in Toyko Japan as a duo with vocalist Lucy Wijnands.
At Hartwick, Ambrose directs the Rock Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble. He also teaches a variety of lecture courses in Jazz and Popular Music, as well as Aural Theory I & II. In 2024 Wyatt helped curate the now annual Hartwick Jazz Day along with Professors Evan Jagels and Gregg Norris. Jazz Day features masterclasses and performances by internationally recognized artists including Ray Vega, Godwin Louis, and Sara Caswell.
Wyatt is also active in his local Oneonta community, serving on the board of Foothills Performing Arts Center, and organizing a variety of accessible music education events and workshops. He also maintains a full private lesson studio, helping a variety of students reach both professional and personal musical goals.