One-Week Intensive Jazz Program for Students Ages 14 – 18
Sunday, June 21 – Friday, June 26, 2015
Special Guest Artists MacArthur Fellow and Grammy Nominee Miguel Zenón plus NEC Jazz Studies Chair Ken Schaphorst headline the week holding masterclasses paired with evening concerts of their music
Students ages 14 — 18 are invited to explore jazz at New England Conservatory during Jazz Lab, a one-week intensive program for students of all proficiency levels, from throughout the United States and abroad. Instrumentalists and vocalists are welcome, as are small ensembles. No pre-audition is required. The program takes place Sunday, June 21 – Friday, June 26, 2015 and both day and overnight students are welcome.
During Jazz Lab students work with NEC’s premier jazz faculty and participate in a curriculum full of improvisation, small group training, jam sessions, entrepreneurial workshops and college audition prep. Special guest artists Miguel Zenón plus NEC Jazz Studies Department Chair Ken Schaphorst headline the week holding masterclasses paired with evening concerts of their music. Other teachers include David Zoffer, Rick McLaughlin, Peter Moffett, Tim Lienhard, Henrique Eisenmann and Caio Afiune.
Jazz Lab will feature seminars in entrepreneurship and training for careers in music. NEC jazz alumni talk about what it takes to promote music, produce concerts, build a private teaching studio and find success as a 21st century jazz musician. Faculty will also instruct students on applying to conservatories, schools of music and universities; what to look for in potential colleges and techniques for a successful audition.
Each day, students take a Jazz Styles course: NEC doctoral students and native Brazilians, Henrique Eisenmann and Caio Afiune, take students on a musical sojourn to Brazil to learn about the traditions of Brazilian folk music. David Zoffer, Chair of the NEC Prep Jazz Department, introduces students to his Blues Workshop, exploring the roots of jazz and popular music. Jazz history guru and Assistant Chair of the NEC Prep Jazz Department, Rick McLaughlin, curates a Jazz History course, giving students a taste of the range of jazz recordings over the last 97 years. NEC alum and NYC-based percussionist, Peter Moffet, brings back a Jazz Lab favorite – drumming. This course invites percussionists and non-percussionists alike to feel the rhythm through movement, groove and poly-rhythms to create danceable music that’s right in the pocket.
Jazz Lab is the perfect opportunity to experience New England Conservatory’s jazz department and the city of Boston while being surrounded by serious jazz musicians from around the country and abroad!
Tuition is $890, which includes all classes, nightly faculty concerts, jam sessions, one private lesson with faculty, t-shirt, lunch and dinner daily (dietary needs are accommodated).
Overnight students pay an additional $490 for five nights’ housing, including daily breakfast. For more information about or to register for this dynamic program, visit http://necmusic.edu/jazz-lab. Questions? Contact: jazzlab@necmusic.edu
The School of Continuing Education (SCE) at New England Conservatory makes the resources of one of the world’s leading music institutions available to everyone, offering serious, satisfying music study from private instrument lessons to full certificate programs. Students can find classes in a range of subjects, workshops, master classes, private instruction and summer institutes, taught by over 100 of the area’s most highly qualified musicians.
Instructors include current and former Boston Symphony Orchestra members, NEC faculty, working jazz artists and many other highly qualified professionals. They’re superb musicians with a special quality: they love to teach students of all levels and abilities. The School of Continuing Education strives to match each student with the teachers who will meet their musical and personal needs. Many of the classes are designed for working adults and meet on weekday evenings or Saturdays. NEC’s School of Continuing Education is one of the few community education programs in the area that offers financial aid to its adult students in need.
NEC’s Jazz Studies Department was the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. The brainchild of Gunther Schuller, who moved quickly to incorporate jazz into the curriculum when he became President of the Conservatory in 1967, the Jazz Studies faculty has included six MacArthur “genius” grant recipients (three currently teaching) and four NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who’s who of jazz. Now in its 44th year, the program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC’s jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.” The program currently has 98 students: 54 undergraduate and 44 graduate students from 14 countries.
