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| Rob Klevan Received Jazz Education Award The Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader in jazz education since its inception in 1958 and the winner of the JazzTimes 2006 Readers Poll for Best Festival, announced that its Education Director, Dr. Rob Klevan, has been awarded the California Music Education Association's 2007 Otter Distributor Jazz Education Award. CMEA is a unit of MENC, The National Association for Music Education, the world's largest arts education organization and is devoted to promote a high quality, substantive and sequential music education for every child in California public schools, taught by a qualified music teacher. The Otter Distributor Jazz Education award is presented to a jazz educator in California and honors Excellence in Jazz Education and Performance, and will be given to Dr. Klevan on March 15, 2007 at the CMEA Gala Awards Banquet in Ontario, California. “It is not a coincidence that the impact of our education programs has risen dramatically since Rob began his tenure with us,” said Tim Jackson, General Manager of MJF. “His knowledge, work ethic, communication skills and good humor have been vital components in firmly establishing our program as one of the finest in the country.” Under Klevan's leadership, the educational programs of the Monterey Jazz Festival have grown, including the refinement and expansion of the National High School Big Band Competition into the Next Generation Festival. Other expanded programs receiving a priority status include the Traveling Clinicians Program, for which Dr. Klevan has been a strong advocate. A graduate summa cum laude from the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific, Dr. Klevan pursued his post-graduate studies at DePaul University in Chicago and at UOP where he received a Masters of Music Degree. In 1993, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in Austin. After a twenty-seven year career as music director and director of fine arts at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, Dr. Klevan was appointed the Jazz Education Director for the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2002 and is also currently in his ninth year as Director of the University of California Santa Cruz's Wind Ensemble. Dr. Klevan also directs the UCSC Large Jazz Ensemble, and teaches an Introduction to Music Education course. He has studied conducting with David Goedecke, William Dehning, Donald Hunsberger, and Glen Richter, and made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with the UCSC Wind Ensemble in May, 2001. Dr. Klevan is Past President for the California Orchestra Directors Association, a past member of the Board for the Central Coast Section of the California Music Educators Association. He serves as a Board member for the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and California Music Project, and currently serves as Immediate Past President of CMEA and as a Resource Team Member for IAJE, the International Association for Jazz Education. Dr. Klevan was named CMEA Educator of the Year and received the McNeely Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992, and was named by MJF as Jazz Educator of the Year for 2003-04. His articles on music teaching have been published in the Jazz Education Journal, the Instrumentalist, CMEA Magazine, Journal for Texas Music Education Research, Newsletter for the California Association of Independent Schools, The Monterey County Herald, and others. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |