Jazz & Contemporary Music
Longy JCM students are rarely just one thing—they are composers, vocalists, instrumentalists, and even entrepreneurs all at once.
- Enjoy Longy’s unique curricular approach where performance, practice, and theory blend together holistically.
- Get the full context in courses that include history, theory, and improv elements in tandem.
- Create your own way of navigating rich musical traditions.
Faculty
ERIC HOFBAUER, CHAIR, GUITAR
Naseem Alatrash, EnsembleS
Sara Bielanski, voice
Leo Blanco, piano, composition, ensembles
Dave Bryant*, ensembles
Peter Cassino (Chair Emeritus), piano, ensembles
Peter J. Evans*, composition
Ana Guigui, voice
Chris Klaxton, Trumpet
Charlie Kohlhase*, ensembles
John Lockwood, upright/electric bass, ensembles
Nando Michelin*, ensembles
Anastassiya Petrova, piano
Randall Pingrey, trombone
Noah Preminger, saxophone
MATT SAVAGE, PIANO
Ben Schwendener, composition, PIANO, THEORY
Neal Smith, drums
Hayley Thompson-king, voICE
Nikola Tomic ́, trumpet
Sylvie Zakarian, percussion
*No private studio
JCM Spotlight
NEAL SMITH, JCM Faculty
“The history of jazz is the foundation the music stands on. And because jazz is a collaboration of communities—Brazilian, Asian, Indian, African, Cuban, European—musicians of the future have more of a vocabulary to choose from in telling their story. The music will always live on.”
MATT SAVAGE, JCM/Piano Faculty
“One thing I really enjoy about Longy’s teaching and learning community is how closely everything is intertwined.“
Course Highlights
Sound and Style: Rulebreakers
Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Jimi Hendrix, and J Dilla challenged the status quo. Take an in-depth look at how they changed the way their instruments were played, invented novel improvisational and compositional languages, and forever altered the course of modern music.
River of Blues: Flowing from the Margins to the Mainstream
From West Africa to the Mississippi Delta, the Blues has long been the foundation of Black musical culture. Follow the artists who developed this style and influenced American mainstream music forever.
Customize Your Curriculum
Create your own opportunities, find new audiences, and make a living in unexpected ways by customizing your curriculum from a catalog of project-based courses you can’t find anywhere else. Our faculty mentors and experienced career coaches will be there to guide you.
More Highlights
The Jazz and Contemporary Music Seminar:
This centerpiece of the JCM graduate program gives students the chance to collaborate on arrangements, engage with faculty and visiting lecturers on contemporary music topics, and demonstrate their current projects.
Advanced Theory for Improvisers:
This course delves into wide-ranging concepts—from pan-modality, to nontraditional harmonic structures, poly-tonal relationships, odd/mixed/polymeters, and more.
Ensembles and Advanced Chamber Ensemble Courses:
All focus on the intersection of improvisation and composition from a myriad of repertoire perspectives.