Academic and Performance Areas

About the Program

The Jazz Studies Program at the Michigan State University School of Music is committed to the highest level performance, mentoring, education and community outreach. This unique program is comprised of nationally and internationally renowned faculty members, drawn directly from the highest ranks of the international jazz community. All faculty members have the experience of performing with top-notch recording and performing artists in jazz and the music industry.

The Jazz Studies Program creates an environment conducive to the development of the next generation of jazz musicians through blues-based improvisation, bebop, swing, blues and soul music. Students learn to develop their ear and intellectual capacity in jazz music.

• Students are offered employment opportunities through compensated performance activities.

• Each student ensemble is required to participate in two performances each semester at the School of Music.

• Courses are conducted through master classes, private studies and studio classes.

• There are 12 available slots for private lessons per instrument for each year of studies.

• Each student receives private lessons with an applied studies professor, which includes the following:
  • Introduction of Creative Ideas for Improvisational Proficiency
  • Translation of Theoretical Principles into Performance Ideas
  • General Understanding of the Jazz Era & Tradition in Relation to One's Particular Instrument, and much more.

• Students have access to nine Jazz Studies facilities.

• Students and faculty participate in community residencies throughout Michigan, and conduct workshops, concerts and master classes with children in various Detroit public schools through the School of Music's Detroit Public School Music Partnership.

• The jazz area's teaching approach and methods consist of various techniques specific to the individual instrument as follows:
• Development of proficiency in performance of contemporary styles of jazz music
  • Memorization of repertoire and lesson material
  • Applied listening and aural skills
  • Provide harmonic and scaler jazz improvisational patterns
  • Introduction of creative ideas for improvisational proficiency
  • Translate theoretical principles into performance ideas
  • Assessment of student's ability to play the instrument and address any and all problems regarding breathing, embouchure, posture, etc. so that improvisational ideas can be realized
  • Strengthen the use of scales and chords, i.e.; Major, Dorian, Mixolydian, Locrian (Half Diminished), Bebop, Blues, Whole Tone, Chromatic
• Students and faculty participate in community residencies throughout Michigan, and conduct workshops, concerts and master classes with children in various Detroit public schools through the School of Music's Detroit Public School Music Partnership.

• Faculty/Student class ratio is 1-12.

• Number of Jazz Majors is approximately 45 and 100 non-jazz major student participants

• An article published in the Fall 2003 edition of MSU Alumni Magazine about the program

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The Jazz Studies faculty at MSU has performed nationally and internationally with many of the who's who in the jazz world, such as

• Wynton Marsalis & The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
• The Late John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie & Dinah Washington
• Harry Connick, Jr.
• Wes Montgomery
• Brandford Marsalis
• Count Basie Orchestra
• Tony Bennett

Members of the faculty perform professionally and tour together - locally and nationally - as "The Professors of Jazz at MSU," one of the most distinguished and innovative jazz ensembles in the United States today. Click here to go to their webpage

Faculty
Jazz faculty members include:
Rodney Whitaker, Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies
Derrick Gardner, Assistant Professor of Jazz Trumpet
Vincent Gardner, Instructor of Jazz Trombone
Randy Gelispie, Instructor of Jazz Drums
Diego Rivera, Instructor of Jazz Studies, Saxophone and Improvisation
Rick Roe, Instructor of Jazz Studies
Sunny Wilkinson, Instructor of Jazz Voice

General Courses
Freshman Jazz Listening
Jazz Ensemble
Jazz Combo
Jazz Improvisation
Jazz History
Jazz Pedagogy I
Jazz Pedagogy II
Jazz Lessons

Performance Opportunities
Jazz Ensembles: two big bands, three octets, seven jazz combos
Four Orchestras: Symphony, Philharmonic, Chamber and Concert
Seven Bands: Wind, Symphony, Concert, 2 Campus Bands, Marching Band and Brass Band

Degrees
Bachelor of Music

Audition Requirements
View audition requirements

Links
International Association of Jazz Educators: http://www.iaje.org
Jazz at Lincoln Center: http://www.jazzatlincolncenter.org
Arts League of Michigan: http://www.artsleague.com

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