About Us

​​Green Country Youth Jazz Ensembles is Northeastern Oklahoma's only Youth Jazz Band organization. Established in 2017, GCYJ provides musicians with unique and advanced Jazz training and also offers many local and national performance opportunities.

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GCYJ is made up of high school students from the greater Northeastern Oklahoma Area. These talented individuals have participated in multiple honor bands on the district and state levels through their local schools.  GCYJ as a whole has competed and placed in the top three at the 2017 Charles Mingus Festival in Newark, NJ and received two outstanding soloist awards.

Our Goal

Our goal is to make sure our members have the opportunity to create the music they love playing.  We want to create another area for current high-school students to participate and compete at higher levels.

Meet our Directors

Doug Styers

Doug Styers was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended East Central High School and completed his Bachelors of Music Education at Southern Nazarene University in 2004. Doug is currently in his ninth year at Edison Preparatory High School as Band Director where he directs the high school marching and concert bands, the advanced jazz band, and assists with the middle school programs. This is also his sixth year as the Jazz Band Chair for Tulsa Public Schools and has served three years as the OKMEA Jazz Band Chair. This will be Doug's seventh year as the director of what is now the Green Country Youth Jazz Ensemble.
Doug has had the honor of taking the Green Country Youth Jazz, in the form of the big band and the combo, to the Charles Mingus Let My Children Hear Music Festival a total of four times. He has also received the "Star Front" award for outstanding and upcoming educators in Tulsa Public Schools Fine Arts.
Doug also, in his spare time, leads the swing band "The Zuits", who have played for numerous events and dances around Tulsa.

Joseph Metzer

Joe Metzer is an Oklahoma native that has been involved in music professionally for well over 30 years. He has arranged for bands in Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and Pennsylvania, as well as having been staff arranger for the University of Tulsa and is an internationally recognized composer and arranger, published through the C.L. Barnhouse Music Company in Oskaloosa, Iowa with over 23 pieces in print. Joe also has several pieces for marching band and marching percussion published through Stone Mill Music.
Joe Metzer’s teaching honors include award winning programs and state jazz championships at Tulsa area high schools, as well as holding the position of Director of Bands at the University of Tulsa. Joe is currently Treasurer of OKJE Oklahoma Jazz Educators.
Joe Metzer’s professional trumpet career includes performances with such names as the Temptations, Wayne Newton, Maureen McGovern, the Lettermen, Melissa Manchester, Rich Little, Leslie Uggams, Carol Channing, Liberace, Sandy Duncan, B.J. Thomas, and James Darren as well as local and regional bands including “The HIP Replacement”, “The ZUITS”, and “JOEY and the JAZZ GUYS”.
Joe Metzer plays a silver Cannonball "Stone Series 727" trumpet and a Warburton 4S mouthpiece with a 9 backbore.