Today, Jazz at Lincoln Center, a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to enriching, entertaining, and expanding a global community for jazz, announced the creation of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy, an intensive jazz performance institute for qualifying high school jazz musicians. After an extensive search, Jazz at Lincoln Center chose to locate its institute in Rappahannock County, Virginia at the Castleton Festival, a not-for-profit summer performance series and young artists training program founded by the late Maestro Lorin Maazel and his wife Dietlinde Turban Maazel to mentor talented young professional musicians in the world of concert and opera performance in a harmonious, supportive setting. Castleton, 550 acres of rolling meadows with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, two professional theater venues, rehearsal spaces, and artist housing, is the location of the Castleton Festival and home to the Maazel family. The first Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy will take place on July 19 – August 3, 2015. Two additional weekends of jazz performances are scheduled for the 2015 Castleton Festival which takes place on June 27 – July 19.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy is Jazz at Lincoln Center’s first music education and performance high school summer program. The two-week institute, designed and instructed by Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis and a select faculty, will serve as a rigorous training program for 42 of the most advanced and dedicated high school jazz students (grades 9-12) in the world. Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy educational components will be led by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
Students will perform in big bands and small combos, receive private lessons, and take classes in aesthetics, culture, history, performance practice and pedagogy. The curriculum and format is based on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 27-year history of educating in jazz performance and appreciation. The launch of Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy occurs as the organization celebrates the 20th anniversary of Essentially Ellington, a year-long high school jazz program.
In addition to the educational components, the summer program will include several public performances featuring the student ensembles, and performances featuring the students with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. These performances will be incorporated into the Castleton Festival’s existing main stage concert series.
“We believe in a ‘hands-on’ approach to education and Maestro Maazel shared that belief,” said Mr. Marsalis. “We will teach kids to play at the highest level, but we also want the Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy experience at Castleton to be transformative and to invite young people into the feeling of jazz.”
“The world of music is where you let go, where you become the person you really are. Jazz is an essential part of our culture,” said Mr. Maazel in his last conversation with Mr. Marsalis in New York on January 8, 2014.
“It has long been our vision for Castleton to evolve for the shared joy and benefit of young performers and Virginia’s arts community, so it is a special honor to share the Castleton spirit with young people focused on jazz through the work of Wynton Marsalis, an artist who my husband regarded with such an admiration and affection. When we heard he was looking for a location for his summer program, we knew it had to be at Castleton,” said Mrs. Turban Maazel.
Acceptance to Jazz at Lincoln Center Summer Jazz Academy is by audition through online submission. Tuition is $3500.00. Over time, Jazz at Lincoln Center is committed to developing a scholarship fund to make all admissions tuition free.
Applications will be accepted from October 6, 2014 – February 1, 2015. For more information, visit jazz.org/summer-jazz-academy.
Jazz at Lincoln Center proudly acknowledges its major corporate partners: Bloomberg, Brooks Brothers, The Coca-Cola Company, Con Edison, Entergy, HSBC Premier, The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, and SiriusXM.