Wouter Turkenburg, is a guitarist, musicologist, jazz history teacher, former head of the jazz department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. He was the co-founder, first Chairman (1990-2002), and first Executive Director (2002-2024) of the IASJ, the international Association of Schools of Jazz. He still serves the IASJ as the Service Bureau Coordinator.

In 1977, Wouter Turkenburg graduated from the Conservatory in Arnhem, The Netherlands on classical guitar. In 1983, he graduated 'cum laude' from the University of Amsterdam in musicology.
He left the position as assistant director of the Music Lyceum, the Amsterdam Music School in 1985, to become the head of the jazz department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands.
In 1989, he stared to teach jazz history at the University of Utrecht as an associated professor. He was teaching the history of jazz from 2002 until 2023 at the Leiden University as an elective for students of various faculties.

In 1989, saxophonist David Liebman initiated the IASJ, the International Association of Schools of Jazz: www.iasj.com Together with colleague Graham Collier, OBE, of the Royal Academy of Music in London, he officially founded the IASJ in 1992. From 1990 on, he was the Chairman, Graham was the Secretary, and David Liebman the Artistic Director. Wouter Turkenburg organized the first IASJ Jazz Meeting in 1990 in The Hague, The Netherlands. After 1990 the IASJ organized the Annual IASJ Jazz Meeting in a different country around the world.

In September 2014, Wouter Turkenburg started researching the historiography of jazz in Europe as a master of music student at the jazz department of the Royal Conservatory. A grant from the Ministry of Education in The Netherlands enabled him to enrol for two years to do the research component of the master of music study. Graduation took place in June 2016.

Kurt Ellenberger en Wouter Turkenburg became the editors-in-chief in 2021 of the IASJ Journal of Applied Jazz Research, published by Grand Valley State University Libraries. The first volume of the journal came out in 2022.

https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iasj_journal/