Two Evenings of Music Celebrate the Centennial of Poet Langston Hughes by Marci Janas '91
	RELATED Back to the main story		Jazz at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music The Oberlin Conservatory of Music incorporated jazz into its curriculum in 1972 and began offering a major in jazz studies in 1989. The program prepares students for careers as professional jazz musicians and for advanced study in jazz. The jazz-studies faculty includes composers and performers who maintain active jazz careers in addition to teaching lessons and classes and coaching ensembles. The Oberlin Jazz Faculty Octet was featured at the 1991 and 1996 International Association of Jazz Educators conferences held in Washington, D.C., and at the 1996 conference in Atlanta. During the first two years of study, jazz performance majors study concurrently with the jazz and the classical applied faculty. This dual approach provides a firm foundation, allows students to build on centuries of musical knowledge of their instruments, and exposes them to teaching methods and resources of different faculty members. During the third and fourth years, students concentrate on study with a specialist in the jazz idiom. Jazz performance majors participate in ensembles during all four years, and they perform in recitals during their junior and senior years. The following instruments are offered as principal private study areas: saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, percussion, and double bass. Members of Oberlin's jazz studies faculty are: visiting Professor of Jazz Saxophone Gary Bartz; Visiting Professor of Jazz Trumpet Marcus Belgrave; Professor of Jazz Studies and Double Bass Peter Dominguez; Assistant Professor of Jazz Trombone Robin Eubanks; Assistant Professor of Jazz Guitar Robert Ferraza; Assistant Professor of Jazz Percussion Billy Hart; Chair, Jazz Studies Program, and Professor of African American Music Wendell Logan; and Visiting Teacher of Jazz Piano Dan Wall. All jazz studies majors complete courses in music theory and music history, as well as liberal arts courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. Jazz studies courses cover a wide range of topics, including jazz aural skills, jazz keyboard, jazz theory, basic arranging and composing techniques, improvisation, and the history of jazz. Majors also complete requirements in aural skills, sight singing, and piano proficiency. There are many opportunities for jazz studies majors to perform at Oberlin and beyond. Several jazz ensembles are formed each semester. In addition to the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble, there are several smaller groups ranging from trios to octets. Notable alumni of Oberlin's Jazz Studies program are bassist, composer, and arranger Leon Dorsey; bassist Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall; trombonist Andy Hunter, top college soloist in the 2001 Detroit International Jazz Festival and winner of the 2002 Frank Rosolino Jazz Solo Competition sponsored by the International Trombone Association; Grammy-nominated composer and pianist Jon Jang; award-winning writer and composer James McBride; composer, arranger, and trumpet player Michael Mossman; and jazz trumpeter Matthew Shulman, one of only six performing artists selected as inaugural recipients of the prestigious Alberto Vilar Global Fellowships in the Performing Arts in 2002. The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865, became part of Oberlin College in 1867. It is the oldest, continuously operating conservatory in the United States, and is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber situated within the intellectual vitality of a liberal arts college.
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