Wynton Marsalis to become Director of Jazz Studies of Juilliard
THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL AND JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCE A REVITALIZED COLLABORATION
Monday, October 28, 2013 – 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.
ABOUT JUILLIARD
Now in its 12th season, Juilliard Jazz offers degrees at bachelor, master, and artist diploma levels. The curriculum combines tailored studio and coursework with professional performance opportunities designed to successfully integrate students into a thriving jazz environment. In addition, its faculty and students conduct national and international master classes and clinics.
The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and its ensembles play more than 50 performances annually including appearances at the Detroit Jazz Festival and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and tour to destinations, such as Costa Rica, Italy, Japan, and Brazil. Juilliard Jazz Ensembles perform regularly at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and the world-renowned Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. For the past several seasons they also have enjoyed week-long runs at Jazz at Lincoln Center with guest artists such as Ernie Andrews, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Sean Jones, Lew Tabackin, Gerald Wilson, Bobby Watson, Frank Wess, and others.
Juilliard Jazz is one of the newer programs of study at The Juilliard School, which was founded in 1905 and long renowned for its superlative performing arts education in classical music, dance, and drama. One of Lincoln Center’s original constituents, Juilliard’s second century began with a major expansion of its facilities, adding 39,000 square feet of state-of-the-art studios, theaters, and rehearsal studios, growing with the needs of a thriving cultural community in the US and abroad. Juilliard’s student body is drawn from 35 states and 44 foreign countries.
ABOUT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for Jazz through performance, education and advocacy. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and guest artists spanning genres and generations, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of performance, education, and broadcast events each season in its home in New York City (Frederick P. Rose Hall, “The House of Swing”) and around the world, for people of all ages. Now in its 26th year, Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Robert J. Appel, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl. Please visit us at jalc.org; follow us on Twitter @JALCNYC and Facebook; watch our free, global webcasts at new.livestream.com/jazz; and enjoy concerts, education programs, behind-the-scenes footage, programs and more at youtube.com/jazzatlincolncenter.
ABOUT WYNTON MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis, Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has recorded more than 70 jazz and classical recordings, which have won nine GRAMMY® awards. Mr. Marsalis became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Mr. Marsalis has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers. He helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home – Frederick P. Rose Hall – the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004.
Mr. Marsalis entered Juilliard in 1979, a student of legendary classical trumpeter (and New York Philharmonic principal) William Vacchiano (who also had been Miles Davis’s teacher at Juilliard). Already performing with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, his rise as a jazz musician, and classical soloist was meteoric. In 2006, adding to his many awards, Juilliard conferred on Wynton Marsalis an honorary Doctor of Music degree at its 101st commencement ceremony.
Comments
HI WYNTON,
I FIRST WANT TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE FOR JAZZ,ITS WONDERFUL.
I’M A BASSIST WHO BEEN PLAYING ELECTRIC FENDER BASS SINCE 1963, IN NYC MAINLY BLUES,ROCK ,SOME JAZZ.YOU KNOW HOW IT WAS BACK THEN,NEEDED TO CHANGE WITH THE TIDE. I STUDIED FROM NOBBY TOTHA A BASSIST FROM THE BIG BAND WHO PLAYED WITH GEAN CRUPA AND MILES .I PLAYED IN BANDS MAINLY ROCK ON THE FENDER BASS..MY UNCLE WAS IN A BAND CALLED THE RYTHUM KINGS PLAYED JAZZ SO I GREW UP LISTING TO IT. NOW IM LOOKING TO START MY OWN JAZZ PROJECT AND LOOKING TO PLAY JAZZ GIGG ONCE I GET THIS PROJECT UP AND RUNNING,BUT I NEED TO LEARN THE DOUBLE BASSS.I DO GIG REGULARLY IN BARS ,TAVERENS & CLUBS.BUT ROCK SONGS.I WANT TO SPREAD THE JAZZ IN AND GIVE THEM A TASTE OF JAZZ..
I DON’T WHO TO TURN TO FOR THIS INFO,IM HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING IN TOUCH WITH RON CARTER. MAYBE YOU OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN TELL ME A GOOD DOUBLE BASS TO BUY FOR JAZZ.
NO MORE THEN 2-3 THOUSAND DOLLARS,DONT FORGET IM A SRUGLING IN MUSIC . I WOULD LIKE TO MEET YOU SOMEDAY. THANKS.
SINCEARLY MARIO
mario on Dec 5th, 2013 at 6:43pm
Congratulations, and thank you for sharing. The videos and music on this site are helping to educate, and therefore improved, the world.
Chris Gould on Oct 31st, 2013 at 10:42am