NEW YORK CITY – The New York Jazz Academy, the city’s newest music school, is preparing to launch its fall semester and is now accepting fall 2009 registration inquiries from all interested parents and students. Located on 86th and West End Avenue, in the heart of the Upper West Side, this new jazz school offers the highest quality jazz music instruction to New York City students of all ages. Recognizing the lack of opportunity among many NYC students to play in school jazz ensembles, the New York Jazz Academy offers weekly big band rehearsals, sectionals, jam sessions, and jazz improvisation seminars for kids, teens, and adults. NYJA also offers in-home private lessons throughout the boroughs.
New York Jazz Academy program director Javier Arau, an accomplished jazz saxophonist and composer, is enthusiastic about the new school. “We are looking for kids and teens who are looking to play and learn with peers. Our group lessons and ensemble workshops can really help a young musician get off his feet and learn to make some great music. The approach to jazz pedagogy at New York Jazz Academy involves the most innovative and successful materials on the market, extremely well-written ensemble music commissioned for use exclusively by New York Jazz Academy, and a teaching staff that includes only the most aware, creative, and encouraging instructors. Not only are we serious about keeping jazz alive, but we also know that playing jazz with peers is seriously fun."
The NYJA faculty roster is perhaps the school’s most impressive feature. It includes saxophonists Wayne Escoffery, Charles Pillow, and Loren Stillman; trumpeters Chris Rogers and Philip Dizack; trombonist Mike Fahie; pianists Deanna Witkowski and Adam Birnbaum; guitarists Brad Shepik and Tom Dempsey; bassists Ike Sturm and Dave Ambrosio; drummers Pete (La Roca) Sims and Richie Barshay, composers Darcy James Argue and Miles Okazaki, and vocalists Carolyn Leonhart and Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, among others. Arau continues, “Teaching applicants have been attracted by our healthy and respectful work environment, one that includes the most generous rate splits in the city, and we have been remarkably selective in our hiring process. Everyone benefits, because NYJA now features many of the very best players and educators in the city. Two phrases that too many jazz educators use—and ones that you won’t hear at NYJA—are, ‘You just gotta feel it,’ and, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ There are so many more constructive ways to teach jazz, and we at NYJA know how to address them.”
Those who are interested in signing up for New York Jazz Academy 2009 Fall Semester lessons and workshops may contact New York Jazz Academy program director Javier Arau at [email protected] or (718) 426-0633. For more information, including curriculum, rates, locations and instructors, visit our website.
New York Jazz Academy program director Javier Arau, an accomplished jazz saxophonist and composer, is enthusiastic about the new school. “We are looking for kids and teens who are looking to play and learn with peers. Our group lessons and ensemble workshops can really help a young musician get off his feet and learn to make some great music. The approach to jazz pedagogy at New York Jazz Academy involves the most innovative and successful materials on the market, extremely well-written ensemble music commissioned for use exclusively by New York Jazz Academy, and a teaching staff that includes only the most aware, creative, and encouraging instructors. Not only are we serious about keeping jazz alive, but we also know that playing jazz with peers is seriously fun."
The NYJA faculty roster is perhaps the school’s most impressive feature. It includes saxophonists Wayne Escoffery, Charles Pillow, and Loren Stillman; trumpeters Chris Rogers and Philip Dizack; trombonist Mike Fahie; pianists Deanna Witkowski and Adam Birnbaum; guitarists Brad Shepik and Tom Dempsey; bassists Ike Sturm and Dave Ambrosio; drummers Pete (La Roca) Sims and Richie Barshay, composers Darcy James Argue and Miles Okazaki, and vocalists Carolyn Leonhart and Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, among others. Arau continues, “Teaching applicants have been attracted by our healthy and respectful work environment, one that includes the most generous rate splits in the city, and we have been remarkably selective in our hiring process. Everyone benefits, because NYJA now features many of the very best players and educators in the city. Two phrases that too many jazz educators use—and ones that you won’t hear at NYJA—are, ‘You just gotta feel it,’ and, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ There are so many more constructive ways to teach jazz, and we at NYJA know how to address them.”
Those who are interested in signing up for New York Jazz Academy 2009 Fall Semester lessons and workshops may contact New York Jazz Academy program director Javier Arau at [email protected] or (718) 426-0633. For more information, including curriculum, rates, locations and instructors, visit our website.
For more information contact New York Jazz Academy Publicity.
