Wyatt Salus is a guitarist, composer, producer, and engineer residing in Cullowhee, North Carolina. A recent graduate of Washington State University, he holds a Master’s of Arts in Music, concentrating in jazz performance and composition. Additionally, Wyatt has a Bachelor’s degree in Commercial Music and Audio Production from Western Carolina University, which focused on jazz and contemporary performance styles as well as recording and audio engineering. He is currently building a studio of private guitar students and performing with his group PSH Jazz Trio in the WNC area.

Wyatt began playing the guitar at the age of 11 under the inspiration of classic rock, metal, and anything else that featured loud, distorted guitars. It wasn’t until high school that he discovered his passion for jazz and composition after getting involved with after school jazz groups. This is what really inspired him to get serious about playing the guitar, and eventually pursue music as a career. 

This led Wyatt to enter the Commercial Music and Audio Production program at Western Carolina University, where he received a top notch education studying guitar with Dr. Chris Beyt, as well synthesis and audio techniques with Dr. Justin Leo Kennedy. His time at WCU offered opportunities to work with styles such as jazz, fusion, rock, country, popular music, and others. He also received the chance to work in a state-of-the-art on-campus recording studio mixing, mastering, recording, and producing audio for music as well as film and video.

While studying at Western, Wyatt was afforded numerous performance opportunities, such as leading one of the jazz combos, writing and performing original music with the WCU Fusion Ensemble, and participating in the WCU Jazz Band’s Spring 2020 tour, where the band performed in schools across North Carolina. Wyatt’s crowning achievement upon leaving Western was the production of his first original EP, featuring four songs written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Wyatt and performed by him and a band of his peers in the Spring of 2021.

After graduating from WCU, Wyatt spent a year performing across WNC with his trio Jazz and Tonic, before leaving to pursue a Master’s degree at Washington State University. Here, Wyatt received the chance to dive headfirst into the study of jazz and composition while also honing his skills as an educator. As a TA, Wyatt assisted in the direction of WSU’s Jazz Lab Band while also serving as instructor of record for the university’s beginning guitar course. Additionally, he performed extensively with the school’s Jazz Big Band, jazz combos, and the student-led Palouse Society Big Band.