The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center today jointly announced that Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Managing & Artistic Director and a Juilliard alumnus, will become Director of Jazz Studies at Juilliard beginning July 1, 2014. Mr. Marsalis actively will oversee the Spring 2014 auditions and admissions cycle to select the entering class for Fall 2014, while immediately beginning to plan for how the program and curriculum will evolve under his leadership to meet the needs of gifted young jazz musicians. In addition, the two organizations announced a substantial new initiative to give Juilliard Jazz students increased access to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education programs, concert opportunities, and audience development projects that will augment their academic work and career. Adding to the School’s existing practical teaching experiences for its jazz students, JALC will provide additional opportunities to perform, and develop practical insights into managing their own careers by participating in JALC’s innovative social media, digital marketing, and webcasting initiatives. This new collaboration revitalizes the relationship between the two organizations, which began when jazz education was introduced at Juilliard with the first class of jazz instrumentalists arriving in September 2001.
In making the announcement, Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi said, “Juilliard always is open to new initiatives and programs that benefit our students, prepare them for a long and successful career, and strengthen our relationships with the professional community that surrounds us. We are especially pleased that a pre-eminent artist such as Wynton Marsalis is returning to his alma mater, in a shared quest for educational excellence. I know that Wynton’s leadership will achieve a new level of exceptional artistic accomplishment in the Juilliard Jazz program, and that our collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center will prove a unique and effective way to incorporate a leading arts institution into the academic life of performing artists.”
“This partnership helps to further Jazz at Lincoln Center’s educational mission of utilizing the innovations of jazz as a foundation for a new type of pedagogy. We embrace the opportunity to carry forward the legacy of success of Juilliard Jazz. We are excited about preparing students to develop a holistic understanding of the world we live in through the prism of jazz, as well as give them the tools to participate in shaping the world to come,” says Wynton Marsalis, Managing & Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center; and incoming Director of Jazz Studies at Juilliard.
Juilliard Jazz began as a pre-professional two-year program for 18 advanced jazz instrumentalists, created in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and organized with considerable input from Wynton Marsalis. The Jazz Studies program at Juilliard currently offers both undergraduate and graduate degree levels, including an advanced pre-professional Artist Diploma program. Among the most performance-intensive departments at Juilliard, it also guarantees weekly lessons with a student’s major teacher, and features both large and small-ensemble concerts. The reinvigorated Juilliard Jazz collaboration mirrors two other programs, also led by Juilliard alumni, that have brought houses of Lincoln Center into closer relationships with Juilliard — the partnership between the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program with Music Director James Levine, and the appointment of New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert to lead Juilliard’s conducting and orchestral studies programs.
