Full Schedule

Clinic Description: Rachel Therrien shares insights from her international career as a trumpeter, composer, and producer. Learn how to balance artistry and business, create opportunities, and build a sustainable path in today’s music world. This clinic empowers musicians to think beyond the gig and craft a career on their own terms.

Clinic Description: Featuring educators Pete Madsen (University of Nebraska Omaha), Jose Valentino (University of Florida), Rob Babel (Fort Zumwalt North High School – Retired), and Quentin Volk (Eau Claire Jazz, Inc.), panel members share jazz program funding strategies through grants, sponsorships, donor engagement, and self-sustaining events. Empower your program—even without a budget!

Clinic Description: This session takes a behind-the-scenes look at the compositional process behind Daniel Hersog’s acclaimed album Open Spaces (Folk Songs Reimagined). Hersog shares how familiar folk melodies were reimagined for jazz orchestra, tracing the path from early drafts to final scores, with a focus on orchestration, reharmonization, and narrative through composition.

Performance Description: Join us for our homage to NOLA music culture with the Javelina Jaht 8, a student Dixieland combo directed by Dr. Theresa Chen. Coming from Kingsville, TX, the hogs will present a wide variety of traditional rep as well as arrangements and originals by our students. Come and have fun!

Performance Description: Under Christine Tavares-Mocha's direction, Two N' Four's goal is storytelling through music. Through the love of jazz, these students focus on honoring traditions of the past and studying / shaping the jazz sound for the future. Two N' Four's focus in performance is to inspire, uplift, and cultivate community. valenciachoir.com

Performance Description: Perform a variety of quality standard charts by various composers and arrangers. Concurrently present stylistic, historical, and pedagogical learning opportunities that are appropriate for Middle school students at all levels.

Clinic Description: This clinic addresses many of the issues that middle school jazz band directors encounter as they instruct and manage their ensemble, including management (including curricular and extra-curricular topics), communication, planning, making warm-ups effective, introducing improvisation, the importance of listening, selecting literature, and resources for supplemental materials.

Performance Description: Led by trumpeter Ryan DeWeese, this is a high-energy large ensemble, blending tradition with contemporary big band writing. We will play music from our debut album as well as premier new material. Arrangers include Jon Hatamiya, Jeff Jarvis, Joey Sellers, Ryan DeWeese, and more!

Clinic Description: Celebrate the life and music of a saxophonist and composer who flouted the biz to get royalties for fellow musicians then mysteriously disappeared from the scene and resurfaced secretly as a NYC public school music teacher. Co-led by Gryce biographer Noal Cohen and Vocalist Alexis Cole, who performs Gryce's songs.

Performance Description: The California Institute of the Arts Modern Ensemble is a group of graduate students focused on creating musical experiences featuring the compositions of students in the ensemble as well as highly arranged music from modern artists such as Immanuel Wilkins, Dayna Stephens, and Christian Scott.

Clinic Description: Learn the I.M.P.A.C.T. framework—six essential steps to transform your student or university jazz album into a release that gets heard. Nick Finzer shares what he’s learned from 100+ real-world campaigns with his label Outside in Music. Skip the fluff, follow the formula, and release with purpose.

Clinic Description: Saxophonist/Ithaca College jazz director Mike Titlebaum learned a valuable lesson from Lee Konitz about the importance of melodic embellishment in jazz improvisation. He has since spent decades developing Koniz’s philosophy into a straightforward method for learning how to improvise, which provides clear and beneficial exercises to beginners and experts alike.

Clinic Description: We will explore how to combine ear development and building technical skills in a manner that is foreign to the majority of directors and students.

Performance Description: Surround Sound is a vocal group committed to preserving and advancing the world of acapella vocal jazz. We will perform iconic acapella arrangements along with newer, more obscure charts.

Clinic Description: This clinic explores how jazz guitarists can transform transcribed lines into personalized improvisational language. Bailey Ehrgott demonstrates practical strategies for adapting vocabulary through melodic variation, harmonic application, and contextual use over tunes. Designed for developing improvisers, the session includes live demonstration and guided approaches to practicing vocabulary with intention.

Clinic Description: Join 2x GRAMMY-winning vocalist Sara Gazarek and Rochester guitar legend Bob Sneider as they explore innovative approaches to crafting duo-based curriculum. This clinic offers practical strategies for fostering collaboration, improvisation, and creativity between students across disciplines, inspiring new possibilities in higher education music programs.

Performance Description: Featuring music composed and inspired by the works of John McLaughlin, while revisiting selections from legendary Mahavishnu and Shakti albums of the 1970s and ‘beyond,’ this group re-envisions McLaughlin’s masterpieces and celebrates his vibrant ensemble work.
The group features Premik Russell Tubbs (original member of Mahavishnu Orchestra), Vin Scialla -drums/bandleader,

Performance Description: The Adam Birnbaum Trio performs a wide variety of material from standards to modern jazz compositions.

Clinic Description: Based on Fifty Years of Performing Experience in all Genres
of Saxophone Playing, as well as Collaboration with the
Major Artists, Equipment Manufacturers, and Pedagogues of
his Generation, Keller Will Share Methods for Developing a
Personal Sound and Gaining Technical Mastery of the
Instrument. Sponsored by Conn Selmer Corporation.

Clinic Description: This presentation explores key questions: Does AI enhance or hinder creativity in jazz composition? Will digital tools reduce the need for foundational musical skills? Could there be a backlash favoring acoustic jazz due to perceived inauthenticity? Will AI tools threaten employment for musicians in the evolving music landscape?

Performance Description: UNC’s vocal jazz program has a long history of excellence, with its flagship ensemble, The Northern Colorado Voices, earning national recognition. Directed by Marion Powers, the group is known for its cutting-edge repertoire, featuring, straight ahead, contemporary jazz, Latin, and pop arrangements, many written by UNC faculty and students.

Clinic Description: This Clinic Explores What Makes Content Go Viral And How Jazz Musicians Can Leverage Platform Behavior, Audience Psychology, And Creative Improvisation To Build An Authentic And Impactful Digital Presence Using Data-Driven Insights.

Performance Description: JSU Combo I performs Jazz Standards and Original Compositions, composed and arranged by members of the group.

Clinic Description: Presented by the Great American Songbook Foundation and The Songbook Academy®, this inspiring clinic for jazz vocalists—led by acclaimed jazz artist La Tanya Hall with dynamic pianist/composer Melanie Shore—explores how to merge jazz technique with lyric-driven storytelling, using Songbook standards to deepen interpretation, emotional connection, and singer-accompanist collaboration.

Clinic Description: In this clinic, vocalists will learn a six-step method to transform a song’s melody into an improvised scat solo, focusing on rhythmic and melodic manipulation. Beginners will build confidence in their improvisation, while more experienced musicians can discover new techniques to expand their creativity and expression on the bandstand.

Clinic Description: This session explores how classical forms like sonata and fugue can expand the structural possibilities of jazz composition. Through score excerpts and recordings of original works, I will demonstrate how these forms can be adapted to jazz music, offering new tools for composers seeking alternatives to head-solos-head conventions.

Performance Description: SAASy Performs Classic And Contemporary Vocal Jazz Works With Rhythm Section And A Cappella. Rooted In Jazz And Other African Diasporic Traditions, This Ensemble Highlights Howard University's Diverse Talent Through Sophisticated Soprano And Alto Harmony, Swing, And Soulful Expression.

Clinic Description: This clinic will introduce the listener to the art of ragas (modal scales), makams (Middle Eastern patterns) and rhythms from the East. Listeners will receive examples and techniques to improvise within the framework of western jazz style (e.g. in licks, phrases, jazz harmonies, modulation, and rhythm).

Clinic Description: Presenting a practice method that is geared to helping improvisers, at any level develop their individual voice. Subjects covered include transcription, directional combinations, intervallic families, diatonic improvisation, improvisation using chromatic passing tones, use of the melodic minor scale and poly-tonal superimposition.

Clinic Description: Polyrhythm is a foundational feature of Jazz, critical to understanding what Jelly Roll Morton has called “The Spanish Tinge”. Through practical examples grounded in Jazz history, this clinic will help participants understand polyrhythm as both a symbol of the music’s multi-cultural legacy and as a creative tool for artistic innovation.

Performance Description: Split Screen is a jazz fusion ensemble that performs music from video games in new, imaginative ways.

Performance Description: The Houston Latin Jazz Orchestra features some of best Latin jazz artists in Houston. These world-class musicians represent the rich heritage of the Latin American countries and the fusion of these cultures with the Houston lifestyle.

Performance Description: Stefon Harris and Blackout are a pioneering force in contemporary jazz featuring Stefon Harris on vibraphone and marimba (Malletech endorsement), Alicia Olatuja on vocals,  Jaleel Shaw on saxophone, Christian Sands on piano (Steinway endorsement), Dezron Douglas on bass, and Terreon Gully on drums.

Performance Description: Little Stompers invites families to celebrate the vibrant traditions of New Orleans through joyful music, dance, and storytelling. Featuring members of the Second Line Family Band, audiences will explore Congo Square rhythms, second line parades, and social music in an interactive concert experience for all ages.