After conducting nearly 400 jazz workshops in the Bay Area, JazzMasters Workshop, a music mentoring program that provides free workshops to high-school and college-age musicians, will expand its services with workshops on Long Island and in South Central L.A, where elementary school-age children will be the focus.
The Long Island workshops, at Clara H. Carlson Elementary School in Elmont,
will be organized by JazzMasters’ Northeast Regional Director, Sherman Irby,
who has performed with Roy Hargrove, Wynton Marsalis and many others. The
Los Angeles program, which has already had a successful beginning at the
Challengers Boys & Girls Club, is being run by graduate students at USC’s Thornton School of Music under the supervision of JazzMasters founder, Bruce Forman, and Mike McKinley, Associate Director of
JazzMasters in the Monterey/Carmel area.
Part of JazzMasters’ “Music Performance Developmental Workshops,” the
Southern California program focuses on students ages 7-12. This program was
created to address the disappearing music programs at the elementary school
level, and all students in the program are urged to take part in school
music programs if and when they are offered. Students will have an opportunity to play piano, guitar, bass, drums, and percussion.
The Long Island workshops are a component of the “After School Jazz”
program. “The expansion of JazzMasters Workshop to New York, and the launch
of our new after-school program is extremely gratifying,” said Forman.
“That artists such as Sherman Irby (our new Northeast Regional Director)
endorse and want to take part in the mentoring model convinces me that
JazzMasters Workshop’s commitment to the upcoming generations will succeed
in its mission. I look forward to further expansion within the Northeast and
into other regions.”
For more information about the JazzMasters Workshop, call (831) 659-4654 or visit _blank> www.jazzmastersworkshop.org.