Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/University of Illinois at Chicago Jazz Academy is a 2-week summer program teaching jazz instruments, performance, and knowledge for children grades 5–12. The Jazz Academy mentors students to help develop life skills and prepare for college. Sponsored by UIC, the Jazz Academy builds on CJP’s JazzAlive school-year program that works to build sustainable music and band programs in Chicago schools. Students participate in individual, small and large class groups and in ensembles such as Jazz Band, Drumline, and Hand Chimes. Additional courses offered range from Instrument Technique to Jazz Aesthetics in addition to college information including financial aid.
Located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the full-day camp opens up new opportunities for participants. Students will:
- Enhance their jazz education from grade school through high school by participating in the Jazz Academy under the instruction of a world-class faculty
- Have unique opportunities to play alongside and perform with professional CJP Artists-in-Residence in a culminating event
- Develop their musical skills
- Have access to private practice rooms, rehearsal halls, and performance venues
- Learn important life skills such as setting goals, time management, team work, communication, and positive interaction with their peers
- Encounter specific campus-based activities that will introduce students to a college campus, while encouraging them to seek higher education
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/University of Illinois at Chicago 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 Theatre and Music (DTM)
- 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.
- DTM 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.
- DTM 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.
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 an Emmy Award winning 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 Clinical Associate Professor in UIC's Department of Theatre and Music.
Tanera Marshall is the Chairman of the Department of Theatre and Music and teaches the BFA Voice and Speech courses, as well as Shakespeare. A certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework ®, Tanera trained at Depaul’s Theatre School (MFA) and Oberlin College (BA). Voice & Dialect Consulting or Coaching credits include film and theater: Public Enemies (Marion Cotillard), The Lucky Ones (Rachel McAdams), King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Misanthrope, A Christmas Carol, The Oresteia, Balm in Gilead, The Kentucky Cycle, Elmina’s Kitchen, A Streetcar Named Desire, and the U.S. premiere of Broadway-bound Dirty Dancing. Acting credits include the Festival de la Rue in Switzerland, Court Theatre, Redmoon, Organic Touchstone, Greasy Joan & Co., and Illinois Shakespeare Festival, along with film, TV, and voiceover. Ms. Marshall has been a Teaching Artist and Consultant since 1995, having co-taught over 40 arts-integrated units at 20 Chicago and Elgin schools, and has led numerous professional development workshops for teachers and artists both in the U.S. and abroad. She is a member of SAG, AFTRA, and VASTA, and is an Associate Editor for the International Dialects of English Archive online, with whom she publishes her growing collection of dialect audio recordings.
