Students performing a jazz concert.
In our jazz studies program you'll perform in a variety of settings with both large and small ensembles. There are plenty of venues -- both on and off campus -- for a polished performance or an impromptu jam session. Your coursework will cover such areas as jazz arranging, improvisation, and history.
For a taste of today's music scene, you may rehearse in a professionally equipped recording studio. If you're an instrumental or vocal jazz major, you'll take private lessons in the classical style.
Each year guest artists give master classes, perform, and coach students. Composers, conductors, and artists such as Vladimir Feltsman, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Jaime Laredo, Richard Stoltzman, Janos Starker, Yefim Bronfman, the Bach Aria Group, Michael Daugherty, Rhythm and Brass, Sharon Isbin, James Galway, Allen Vizutti, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players have come to campus to perform and instruct students through the school's master classes.
The Karel Husa Visiting Professor in Composition series enables student composers to work with such luminaries as Stephen Hartke, Robert Beaser, John Corigliano, Chen Yi, Tania León, Samuel Adler, and Christopher Rouse, and our school ensembles perform the works of these composers during their visits.