|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| Jazz At Lincoln Center Welcomes Jazz Educators Jazz at Lincoln Center will welcome band directors from across North America and South Africa during two sessions of the Seventh Annual Band Director Academy (BDA). A companion to Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington program, the BDA helps music educators better conduct and teach jazz. This year's BDA provides music educators the opportunity to study two great challenges in teaching jazz: improvisation and the rhythm section. The first session, Teaching Improvisation, will be held at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI on July 6-8, 2006. The curriculum includes classes on Vocal Concepts & Internalizing Rhythm in Jazz Style and Articulation, Motivating a Young Improviser, Teaching Improvisation in a Large Group Setting, and Voice Leading and Transcribing. The second session, Rhythm Section Techniques, will be at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, on July 13-15, 2006. The curriculum includes pedagogy classes on guitar, piano, bass and drums. Additional classes focus on the interaction between these instruments and demonstration classes. Led by some of the foremost jazz educators in the country, the BDA emphasizes hands-on learning and focuses on concepts and techniques to be immediately applied in the classroom. The curriculum integrates aspects of performance, history, pedagogy, and discussion. This eyear, the Academy faculty included Academy Director Ron Carter (Northern Illinois University), Scott Brown (Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA), Steve Kirby (University of Manitoba), James Chirillo, Dana Hall (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Reggie Thomas (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), and Rodney Whitaker (Michigan State University). For 11 years, Jazz at Lincoln Center has produced Essentially Ellington, a program that disseminates Duke Ellington compositions to high school jazz bands, encourages the study and performance of Ellington's music, and fosters mentoring relationships between students and professional musicians. In 2000, Jazz at Lincoln Center inaugurated the BDA as an annual companion program. "Jazz at Lincoln Center's ultimate goal is to see the arts in America, specifically the musical arts, achieve the prominence they deserve in our educational curriculum, " said Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Education is at the heart of Jazz at Lincoln Center's mission, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all programming and reaching an audience of more than 320, 000 students and teachers each year. The organization's educational programs and publications guide students, educators, musicians, and the general public in playing, teaching and appreciating the richness and diversity of jazz music. By engaging students at every level, from pre-kindergarten to adult, Jazz at Lincoln Center aims to make jazz accessible to audiences all across the country. Founding leadership support for the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program and the Seventh Annual Band Director Academy is provided by The Dana Foundation, Alfred and Gail Engelberg, The Heckscher Foundation for Children, The Irene Diamond Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Surdna Foundation, Additional support is provided by Citigroup Foundation, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation, The New York Times Company Foundation, and other generous funders. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |