Event Calendar & News: Student News

Jazz Program Reaching Diverse Audiences Near and Far Through Innovative Partnerships and Programming

The MSU Jazz Studies Program is playing a key role in various outreach initiatives, partnerships, and new programming on campus and throughout Michigan. The program is well on its way to becoming one of the top university jazz programs in the country through its unique approach to performance, mentoring, outreach and education.

OUTREACH

Michigan Arts League
The Jazz Studies Program continued its partnership, established in 2003, with the Michigan Arts League in Detroit. The Arts League is dedicated to developing, presenting, promoting, and preserving African and African-American cultural arts within its multicultural community. Through this organization, MSU jazz faculty members run a summer jazz camp, and MSU jazz students, under the direction of a jazz faculty member, participate in an Artist Mentorship Program. In the near future, Director of Jazz Studies Rodney Whitaker plans to implement a similar mentorship program under the direction of the jazz faculty in the Lansing area in conjunction with the MSU Community Music School (CMS). Also through CMS, he plans to start a summer jazz camp for high school and middle school students at the music building.

MSU Sesquicentennial Tours

In addition to numerous other on- and off-campus performances by jazz students and faculty, student ensembles will journey on two MSU Sesquicentennial Tours to southeastern and northern Michigan during the 2004–05 academic year. MSU celebrates its Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) in 2005. As part of the celebrations, MSU College of Music ensembles have been bringing music to all corners of Michigan since 2001 through the MSU Sesquicentennial Tours.

Band Director Academy

Jazz at Lincoln Center hosted its weeklong, fifth annual Band Director Academy at the MSU Music Building in June 2004. The academy gives music educators the opportunity to increase their knowledge of conducting and learn about various jazz composers through the integration of performance, history, pedagogy and jazz discussion. It emphasizes hands-on learning and techniques that can be immediately applied in the classroom. Whitaker served as one of the instructors and plans to do so again when the College of Music hosts the academy in 2006.

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING

Wharton Center Partnership

The Wharton Center for Performing Arts (on the MSU campus) and MSU Jazz Studies Program have combined their resources to present new jazz programming. The focus will be on the appreciation and understanding of jazz through performance, presentation, education and preservation. Unique national and international jazz acts and up-and-coming artists will be presented throughout the year. The following two programs began in fall 2004:

The Jazz Kats–Jazz for Kids educational outreach series is geared toward middle school students to increase their understanding of and appreciation for jazz. It is modeled after Jazz at Lincoln Center’s highly successful Jazz for Young People concerts. The series was developed by artistic director Rodney Whitaker and co-produced by Wharton Center Executive Director Michael Brand, with assistance from Wharton’s Education Director Debbie Gift. Scripts and study guides were developed by Anna Celenza, associate professor of musicology at MSU, and award-winning author of the acclaimed children’s book The Farewell Symphony, which introduces children to a classical work by Haydn. Mitchell Robinson, assistant professor of music education, assists her. Concerts are presented to school audiences in a weekday series, with a weekend public matinee series designed specifically for families with elementary and middle school aged children. The concerts feature MSU jazz faculty and are narrated by storyteller Charles Thornton. Plans are also underway to tour Jazz Kats throughout Michigan. Public performances during the 2004–05 academic year include: Let Freedom Ring and Young Satchmo, Blow Your Horn!

Jazz in the Loft, the second new program in the partnership, features a series concerts starring the PJ’s@MSU with nationally recognized guest artists in the intimate setting of Wharton Center’s Grand Tier Lounge. Guests performing during the 2004–05 season include trumpeter John Faddis, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and vocalist Vanessa Rubin. 

For more information on this partnership, Jazz Kats, or Jazz in the Loft, or to purchase tickets, visit www.whartoncenter.com

MSU Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Sunny Wilkinson, assistant professor of vocal jazz at MSU, established a Vocal Jazz Ensemble in fall 2004. In addition to providing great entertainment, the ensemble is used as a medium to help jazz singers grow, explore, and improve their reading, musicianship, improvisation and group singing skills. The group performs jazz standards, contemporary literature, songs from the Great American Songbook, and Brazilian music. The concerts provide an enriching, varied musical experience.

MSU Professors of Jazz

The MSU Professors of Jazz , an ensemble consisting of the entire MSU Jazz Studies faculty, are featured artists in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Jazz Club Series, which runs throughout the 2004–05 academic year. Concerts are held at the new Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit and feature the MSU Professors of Jazz and international guest artists. The MSU Professors of Jazz will continue performing concerts through the Michigan Arts League (Detroit), Creole Gallery in Lansing (Mich.), and throughout Michigan. 

2003–04 HIGHLIGHTS

Following are some highlights of unique events and projects that occurred during the 2003–04 academic year:

In 2003, a digital video/audio documentary was produced about the MSU Jazz Studies Program. Entitled, Inside Jazz: Everybody’s Welcome, it takes the viewer inside a world of jazz performances, lessons and master classes, showing how the jazz tradition is passed from one generation to the next. It features MSU students and faculty, guest artists, and the acclaimed trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The documentary won third place in the East Lansing Film Festival, and a Gold Award in the Aurora Awards, an international film and video competition. It will also air on PBS some time in the future. The documentary is a production of the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media in association with WKAR-TV and the MSU Jazz Studies Program.

The Jazz Studies Program established a campus chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators in fall 2003, open to all MSU music students. The group fosters jazz education for music students and organizes and promotes jazz events and educational seminars.

The jazz area brought numerous guest artists to campus, such as Jon Hendricks, known as the “father of vocalese,” professor of jazz history at the University of Toledo, who performed at Wharton Center with vocal jazz students and Jazz Band I. Other guests who presented master classes or performed include: Wynton Marsalis, Carl Allen, Marcus Belgrave, Harvey Mason, and Cyrus Chestnutt, among many others.

The jazz area presented a Celebration of Women in Jazz concert and master class featuring jazz vocalist Sunny Wilkinson, who became a full-time faculty member in fall 2004. Guest artists who performed with her included: Marion Hayden (bass), Ellen Rowe (piano), and Gayelynn McKinney (drums). These artists have made a significant impact on the world of jazz as professional musicians and teachers. They featured original compositions and songs by historically prominent female jazz musicians.