Jazz Academy 2010 Registration is Now Open!
For more information, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), Program Manager.

Sponsor a Student

  • Two-week program on the UIC campus!
  • Instructors include CJP members!
  • Includes T-shirt, lunch & all materials!

CJP-UIC Jazz Academy 2009 Camp Photo

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/UIC Jazz Academy is a summer jazz camp that builds on CJP's school year programming known as "JazzAlive". Students develop skills and knowledge about music and music performance through participation in various ensembles such as Jazz Band, Drumline, Handchimes, and Strings. Additional courses offered range from Jazz Aesthetics to Instrumental Technique.

Located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the camp opens up new opportunities for the participants.

Student handchimes performance from Jazz Academy 2009

A rousing performance of Louis Prima's Sing, Sing, Sing, performed by the Gwendolyn Brooks
Middle School band during Jazz Academy 2009.

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/UIC Jazz Academy helps resolve three critical issues:

  • The need for children in underserved communities to become interested in pursuing higher education
  • The lack of sustained music education from grade school through high school
  • The need to preserve jazz as a genre for the next generation

The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/UIC Jazz Academy connects students to an outstanding institution of higher learning. This exposure helps students break down perceived barriers to higher education and enhances their chances for life-long success.

University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Performing Arts (DPA)

  • UIC is conveniently located on the near west side of Chicago and it is easily accessible by car, train, and bus.
  • More than 25,000 students who study at UIC come from the city of Chicago, its suburbs, from all 50 states, and 95 foreign countries.
  • DPA is committed to music and theatre as forms of artistic expression that have a crucial role to play in the cultural, intellectual, social, and political life of the community in which they exist, and in the world as a whole.
  • DPA is housed in the College of Architecture and the Arts, which also includes the Schools of Architecture, Art and Design, and the Department of Art History.
  • UIC Performing Arts faculty hold national and international credentials as artists, teachers, and/or scholars.

Students need to register in advance for the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/UIC Jazz Academy. The $175 tuition includes coursework, materials, lunch, and recreational activities. Click here to register.

Orbert Davis has a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from DePaul University and a Masters of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University. In addition to being a world-renowned jazz musician, he is a composer and conductor and the Founding and Artistic Director for the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. His two critically acclaimed recordings, Priority and Blue Notes, both reached the top ten on the national JazzWeek jazz charts. Davis is Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies in UIC's Department of Performing Arts.

Vincent Paglione is the Interim Chairman of the Department of Performing Arts and also the Associate Dean for Students in the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He has been in higher education for over 30 years working with students in architecture, design, studio arts, music and theatre. He has been active in every aspect of university education. Mr. Paglione is the coordinator of a program with the Chicago Public High Schools in collaboration with Gallery 37 and the College of Architecture and the Arts that teaches 3D computer animation, graphic design, video production and drama. He has also coordinated grants with the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the U.S. Department of Education for North American Exchange with nine universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

For a full list of instructors click here