Paul Read is a composer, arranger, pianist, saxophonist, and educator. He directed his own big band: the Paul Read Orchestra, and for 20 years was pianist/arranger with the Trish Colter Sextet. In 1991, he founded the Jazz Studies program at the University of Toronto where he was Director of Jazz Studies and Graduate Jazz Studies. Before that, Paul was a member of the Humber College Music Faculty in Toronto from 1979 to 1991. He is a recipient of the Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Music by the Toronto Arts Foundation, the 2018 Ken Page Memorial Trust Lifetime Achievement in Music Award, and in 2022, the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) Distinguished Service Award.