Bachelor of Music in Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation
Application Deadline for Fall 2025 - December 1, 2024
This degree program is designed for students who want to combine strong foundations in mainstream jazz training, as well as more eclectic approaches to contemporary improvised music. Applicants should have an extensive background on an instrument and demonstrated improvisational skills.
Curriculum
The Bachelor of Music in Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation requires a minimum of 120 credits: coursework is 75% within SMTD and 25% within the liberal arts.
SMTD coursework to include:
- Private lessons
- Music Theory
- Musicology
- Jazz ensemble participation
- Improvisation
- Piano
- Composition
Silent Advisor
Degree requirements and term-by-term layout for current students.
Faculty
Andrew Bishop
Marion Hayden
Robert Hurst
Kris Johnson
Mark Kirschenmann
Marcus Elliot Miller
Andy Milne
Brad Phillips
Daniel Pinilla
Ellen Rowe
Edward W. Sarath
Martha Travers
Dennis Wilson
Nate Winn
Performance Opportunities
From large ensembles in celebrated concert halls to chamber groups in intimate recital spaces, performance opportunities across all disciplines abound, with nearly 900 student performances each academic year. Whether your focus is on early, classical, or contemporary music, whether your passion is for jazz, electronic, or world music, there is an ensemble—or in many cases, multiple ensembles—to suit your interests, including specific opportunities for percussion, piano, and organ & carillon. For students in theatre & drama, musical theatre, dance, and opera, opportunities abound in both professionally produced and student-run presentations.
Jazz Ensemble
Ellen Rowe, director
The University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble is the most competitive of the University’s jazz ensembles. Open by audition only, most seats are filled by majors within the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation. The ensemble meets twice a week for two hours, performs several times a semester on campus and off.
Jazz Lab Ensemble
Dennis Wilson, director
Designed to rehearse, perform, and examine the repertoire of the jazz big band, the Jazz Lab Ensemble explores classic, historically significant repertoire as well as new arrangements and/or compositions. Occasionally non-traditional jazz instruments are used to highlight and expand the diversity of the ensemble. This is also a class that is intended to develop the necessary skills of section lead playing, rehearsal techniques, jazz phrasing and styles. A wide selection of materials is used to attain these goals including the music of classic big bands such as the Thad Jones Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie Band, Oliver Nelson, Duke Pearson and Duke Ellington Orchestra. The ensemble periodically rehearses and performs the music of student arrangers as well. Each year the ensemble performs with guest artists, and student composers are given the opportunity to help compose and arrange a unique selection for the guests.
Small Jazz Ensembles
Small Jazz Ensembles is a course devoted to small group jazz performance. Offered in both the fall and winter terms, students are divided into approximately 6 ensembles, ranging in size from trios to septets.
Creative Arts Orchestra
This is a unique, largely improvisation-based group that invites interaction with other performance fields such as dance, theatre, and music technology.