Questions about Northwestern's jazz program

Hello! I have been accepted to the jazz programs at Northwestern, UMich, and UMiami, and am having a tough time deciding between them. One concern I have about Northwestern is that many of the faculty are members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, so they are in New York at least once a month and occasionally go on multiple-month tours. I was hoping someone could shed some light on the level of faculty presence in Northwestern’s jazz program, the type of community present within that program, or any other information you might deem helpful about Northwestern or the other two schools I am considering.

Thanks.

Can’t speak to Northwestern but can speak to Michigan. We live in Ann Arbor and my son is a HS senior who will be attending music school in the fall for jazz studies. We visited a lot of schools and, honestly, Michigan’s jazz faculty really stand out for being a close group who are truly present at the school, and within the community. They come to do masterclasses at my son’s high school every year – Ellen Rowe’s quintet, with Ingrid Jensen, came two weeks ago, Benny Green came a few months ago. They also perform around town often, with each other in various combinations. In fact, we have a double-bill tonight – Andrew Bishop and Diego Rivera (MSU) with Prism, then Benny Green and his trio later. We ran into Dennis Wilson at the grocery store about a month ago and chatted a bit about my son’s school choices and it was clear that they take pride in their commitment to be “real” professors (“We have real offices in the building, with our names on it, with office hours and we’re THERE.”)

I think this is an issue with all jazz programs with “big name” faculty. The famous teachers are obviously attractive but there’s a trade-off.

I hesitate to reply since I know nothing about jazz. But maybe this would be relevant. My D had a well-known and still traveling teacher for undergrad. It did and still does have pluses as her name and connections have helped open doors - still you need to deliver.

But it did pose some challenges of getting time with her. You may need to be on your toes for rescheduling time. My D in first semester of freshman year was not. She didn’t really get how “aggressive” she needed to be to get back on the schedule after a canceled lesson. She was worried about bothering her teacher. There came a pt when the teacher suggested she move studios bc she wasn’t getting enough time. That finally lit a fire under my D. She protested strongly (probs tears involved) and started aggressively signing up for lessons. She got rid of the Friday time slot in second semester - which was the biggest problem as the teacher started traveling a lot of Friday’s. So you could be in a situation where YOU need to be advocating for yourself. Or if the teachers travel regularly maybe they have a “system” and it’s not hard. Worth checking out.

The other thing that helped from sophomore year on was a coach. This was a “class” (for one) with a professor every semester. Plus her pianist was a grad student wanting to coach and studying under her coach. So lots of attn. and stability this way. Her teacher was gone for a semester in jr yr. so she worked with another teacher (recommended and set by her teacher) and it was really good. She had some nice growth with a fresh perspective. So you could try to figure out coaching relationships too.

Still none of the above is about jazz at northwestern. You may want to contact northwestern and see if you could talk direct with a current jazz student. My D has done this so its not odd. You can talk by email and ask a current student how this impacts them. Students are usually pretty honest.

Hope this experience of scheduling issues and coaching helps in some way. We also knew another girl with a still working famous vp teacher that had disappointments. Different school. Same issues but greatly exaggerated. This girl just didn’t feel the teacher was that invested. My D felt hers was. So you should check. But in the end it’s always a leap of faith.