MKA Middle School Jazz Band Students Experience a Master Class at Julliard

Linda Larkin, Director of Middle School Bands, accompanied Middle School Jazz Band students to Julliard, New York City, recently to experience a day of Master classes and to receive valuable instruction and feedback from some of Juilliard's world-renowned jazz department professors and graduate students. Larkin describes how the event was made possible: "Laurie Carter, Executive Director of Jazz Studies and an MKA Middle School parent and I have been talking for some time about how best to get the Jazz Band students together with Juilliard jazz musicians.  We had tried incorporating them into the school day but the time was too short, and that's when we thought about actually taking our students to them.  Laurie was able to set up a full day of Master classes for the whole band, workshops for each of the instrument types as well as a master class on how to improvise solos."  

For young musicians, the experience was remarkable. As Larkin explains, "It was an amazing day!  We began by playing for each other, studying how each performed.  Then, the Juilliard professors, Carl Allen, James Burton (brass), Mark Sherman (rhythm) and graduate students Michael Thomas (woodwinds), Christopher Ziemba, John Tate and Jeremy Noller gave us some pointers, and we played again trying out the new directions.  This was followed by specific instrument workshops where we learned specific jazz performance techniques for our instruments.  Afterwards, it was time to get back together and do some improvising.  We topped off the day by performing again; this time with the Juilliard professors and students playing with us and trading solos. The difference between our morning performance and our afternoon performance was astounding. We learned an amazing amount in just one day and discussions are already underway to try and make this trip again next year."

To view additional photos from the visit, click here.