Students ages 14 — 18 are invited to spend a week in the city eating and breathing jazz with some of the best musicians in the country and make friendships that will last a lifetime at New England Conservatory’s Jazz Lab. It’s a one-week intensive program for students 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 26 – Friday, July 1, 2016. Both day and overnight students are welcome.
During Jazz Lab students surround themselves with like-minded musicians and take their jazz training to the next level. Unlike many other summer jazz programs, NEC’s Jazz Lab offers both an intimate setting for learning combined with the rich urban landscape of Boston. 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.
Jazz lab faculty include NEC Jazz Studies Department Chair Ken Schaphorst, pianist David Zoffer, bassist Rick McLaughlin and trombonist/Jazz Lab Artistic Director Tim Lienhard. Special guest artists include the legendary pianist Ran Blake, renowned vocalist Dominique Eade, percussionist Rakalam Bob Moses and saxophonist Allan Chase.
In addition to daily theory/improvisation classes, small ensemble coaching, and one on one instruction, 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.
Tuition is $895, 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 $495 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
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 45th 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 95 students; 48 undergraduate and 47 graduate students from 13 countries.
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