Monterey Jazz Festival Announces Summer Jazz Camp
June 11 – 22, 2012 at Monterey Peninsula College
Camp Instructors Include 2012 Festival Artist-In-Residence, Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire
13 Nationally-Renowned Clinicians
Teach Over 160 Monterey County Music Students
Free Concerts and Jam Sessions Slated for June 18 – 21
in Monterey and Pacific Grove
Monterey Jazz Festival Summer Jazz Camp
June 11-22, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monterey Peninsula College
980 Fremont St, Monterey, CA 93940
www.mpc.edu
Student Jam Session
Monday, June 18, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Museum of Monterey
5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey, California 93940
www.museumofmonterey.org
Vocal Solo Mic Night
Tuesday, June 19, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Museum of Monterey
5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey, California 93940
www.museumofmonterey.org
Combos Concert
Wednesday, June 20, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monterey Peninsula College Auditorium
980 Fremont St., Monterey, CA 93940
www.mpc.edu
Big Bands and Vocal Concert
Thursday June 21, 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Pacific Grove Middle School Auditorium
835 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950
June 4, 2012; Monterey, California; The Monterey Jazz Festival is pleased to announce its two-week Summer Jazz Camp for middle and high school students, taking place at Monterey Peninsula College, June 11-22, 2012. This year, 160 students from dozens of schools in Monterey County and beyond will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in jazz study and performance with a star-studded line-up of professional musicians and educators. Through the generosity of its supporters, the Monterey Jazz Festival provides subsidies for students in need to make the camp financially accessible.
The Monterey Jazz Festival Summer Jazz Camp is an intensive immersion program for young jazz students to learn and develop music skills and knowledge, with classes including big bands, small ensembles, vocal performance, instrumental master classes, and daily workshops on different music subjects. The camp also includes special sessions for students to attend combo rehearsals and theory classes. Camp staff expect enrollment of at least 160 young musicians to participate in this valuable music endeavor, keeping classes and ensembles to a small size. The students, ranging in age from twelve to eighteen years old, earn one unit of credit from Monterey Peninsula College at the completion of camp.
“The Monterey Jazz Festival is offering a heightened emphasis on jazz playing skills, jazz aesthetics, and jazz history this summer to music students of Monterey County and beyond,” said Paul Contos, Monterey Jazz Festival Education Director. “Both instrumentalists and vocalists will receive true mentoring by seasoned jazz professional artists who are empathetic and caring educators as well. At least four performance opportunities will feature the many ensembles and soloists featured at this year’s camp. I am also excited that Ambrose Akinmusire, who came through the Festival’s All-Star program, will be visiting as Artist-In-Residence. Ambrose’s playing and recent recordings have electrified listeners who are paying attention, and we welcome this opportunity for him to join us in our summer camp experience!”
The Student Jam Session will take place at the Museum of Monterey at 5 Custom House Plaza on Monday, June 18, at 6:00 p.m., with an additional Vocal Mic Night on Tuesday, June 19, at 6:00 p.m., also at the Museum of Monterey. The Combos Concert will take place Wednesday, June 20, at 7:00 p.m. at the Monterey Peninsula College Auditorium, with the Big Bands and Vocal Concert taking place on Thursday, June 21, at 7:00 p.m. at the Pacific Grove Middle School Auditorium in Pacific Grove.
This year’s Summer Jazz Camp will be highlighted by the presence of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2012 Artist-In-Residence, Ambrose Akinmusire, The Oakland, California-born trumpeter attended Berkeley High School and was a member of the 1999 and 2000 Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Band. He attended the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship, studying with Vincent Penzerella, Dick Oatts, Lew Soloff, and Laurie Frink. He performed publicly with Lonnie Plaxico, Stefon Harris, Josh Roseman, Vijay Iyer, Charlie Persip, the Mingus Big Band, and the San Francisco Jazz Collective, to name a few.
Ambrose returned to the West Coast in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and simultaneously attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. His teachers include Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Billy Childs and Gary Grant. He has worked with such artists as Jimmy Heath, Jason Moran, Hal Crook, Bob Hurst, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ron Carter, Jason Moran, Wallace Roney, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. After graduation in 2007, Ambrose won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition in the space of one week. Ambrose made his major-label debut in 2011, releasing When the Heart Emerges Glistening on Blue Note Records, which was chosen by the New York Times as their top album of the year.
In addition to Mr. Akinmusire, the camp’s roster of instructors features many of the finest jazz educators in the country. 2012 faculty includes saxophonists Virginia Mayhew, Gary Meek, Paul Lucckesi, as well as Paul Contos; trumpeters Peck Allmond and Michael Galisatus; trombonist Robynn Amy, drummer Vince Lateano, bassist Scott Steed, guitarist Bruce Forman, pianist Milton Fletcher; and renowned vocalists Julia Dollison and Kerry Marsh. Committed to training young instructors in the art of teaching, the camp also invites talented alumni of the Festival’s Jazz Ed programs to mentor younger students. In 2012, the Summer Jazz Camp welcomes back trombonist Mark Stotzer, drummer Jesus Vega, violinist Noah Freedman, and bassist Andrew Parker to its faculty.
Reservations for the Monterey Jazz Festival Summer Jazz Camp can be made by contacting Paul Contos at the Festival offices at 831.373.3366, or email pcontos@montereyjazzfestival.org.
The Monterey Jazz Festival receives support for its Jazz Education Programs from AT&T, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Community Foundation of Monterey County, D’Addario Music Foundation, Joseph Drown Foundation, Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation, Harden Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Pebble Beach Company Foundation, Quest Foundation, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, Rotary International, Upjohn California Fund, Surdna Foundation, and generous individual contributors.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is dedicated to perpetuating the uniquely American form of music known as jazz by producing performances that celebrate the legacy and expand the boundaries of jazz; and by presenting year-round local, regional, national, and international jazz education programs. The Monterey Jazz Festival is a nonprofit organization and has donated its proceeds to musical education since its inception in 1958.