hello–I’m not sure I’m posting in the right place. We are looking for a summer pre-college music program for our son, a junior. Ideally, it would be 2 or 3 weeks, not 6. Only looking for jazz. Ideally it would be audition based. I have located Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy and a program at Eastman. That’s good. Anything else? Nothing I can see at Carnegie Mellon or Oberlin seems to fit.
Any other suggestions?
Some older threads with suggestions:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1739980-jazz-band-summer-programs.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1971843-which-summer-music-program-to-choose-brevard-idyllwild-stanford.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/890262-2010-summer-jazz-camps.html
Interlochen - two 3-week sessions every summer, close ties to Jacobs (IU) jazz faculty
Jazz Port Townsend - led by John Clayton, usually draws a who’s who list of faculty
Vail Jazz Workshop - must be nominated to apply, I think about as selective as you get among HS programs
MPulse at University of Michigan
Also, Downbeat usually does a summer jazz camp listing/article right around this time of year.
Interlochen, Stanford (no audition) California State Summer School of the Arts (4 weeks, audition based, only about 20 spots for out of state kids), Berklee has one week guitar sessions, USC has a guitar seminar that is 4 weeks, they do all styles, but jazz is part of it. What instrument does your son play?
piano.
I wouldn’t just focus on Audition based as most Jazz camps and labs will place students in ensembles based on their abilities. By far one of the most rigorous pre-college programs is Berklee’s 5 week which also will give your student a chance to audition and compete for prestigious scholarships. The interesting thing about Berklee’s 5 week is that students come from all over the world. So it gives your student a chance to play and connect with musicians who are outstanding from other countries.
That being said I also want to promote NEC’s Jazz Lab. It is not audition based but the quality of the instruction and the level of playing will be exceptionally high. Also the guy who runs it is one of the best conservatory/college advisors I met and is a great person to work with if your child is thinking of applying to conservatory.
Litchfield’s Jazz Camp is also good and Don Braden does an amazing job of helping talented students find their way in the Jazz world. They offer a great college fair while students are there which gives students a chance to meet people from conservatories and colleges all over the country. Students at the top of the pack at Litchfield have a chance to play with some of the celebrities that perform at the Litchfield Jazz Festival which is at the end of the camp sessions.
Those three are my top choices.
Berklee has a 5 week jazz workshop that is a full ride if you get in. Definitely audition based and very very hard to get in but worth a shot!
https://www.berklee.edu/summer/programs/five-week-summer-program/scholarships
I have heard that in addition to Lincoln Center, the NY Jazz Academy and Jazz House Kids (NJj are also good. They are not residential so you’d have to figure out housing.
thanks!
I think I probably said this in one of the threads that @SpiritManager posted, but my son had good experiences at Stanford Jazz Workshop (the more adult-oriented Institute rather than the camp), Eastman and Skidmore. I’ve heard good things about the other programs suggested in this thread as well. One of the factors influencing my son’s choices was that he had friends going to the programs he attended. It was nice arriving there already knowing a couple of other people. Though he also made new friends at these programs as well, a number of whom ended up at some of the NYC music school jazz programs, which gave him an entree there as well. Definitely worth doing.
adding to what JazzPianoDad said, in Jazz more than classical music connections with others matters a lot. Meeting and playing with as many diverse musicians is vital to growing as a Jazz musician.