Master of Music - Jazz Studies - Performance

Program Description

The graduate jazz studies program provides students a comprehensive education in jazz, allowing students to specialize in either performance or composition. Drawing upon the resources of the Chicago jazz scene, faculty members are highly celebrated performers, teachers, composers, and arrangers. In addition to applied jazz lessons, jazz ensembles, and jazz combos, Master of Music students enroll in courses such as jazz theory, history, pedagogy, improvisation, composing, and/or arranging. Throughout the program, jazz students have multiple opportunities to record performances and compositions in professional recording studios. The Master of Music degree is a two-year program.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate basic music research techniques and apply knowledge of standard reference tools and bibliographic sources to the writing of a variety of professional and academic music texts.
• Develop an expanded global, historical, and cultural understanding of music through the in-depth study of musical elements, compositional processes, and aesthetic properties.
• Perform solo and ensemble works with appropriate techniques and musicality.