With my Idyllwild roommates (left to right: Chloe Drazen, Michelle Webb, me, Sarah Corza)
My final year of high school has finally begun — after a great summer spending time in New York (which you may have read about earlier; if not, check it out) and at the Idyllwild Arts Academy Summer Jazz Workshop (which I’ll update you on in just a moment), it’s almost difficult to settle myself down in my AP Macroeconomics class just thinking about it. This school year opens up to dozens of new challenges: jazz rehearsals, AP classes, SATs, copy editing, and greatest of all — college applications. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve been touring around colleges both locally and across the country (check out my excitement with the Columbia University tour here), and the rush of excitement is already getting to me even though everything’s only just started.
with Jeff Tower
I owe a great deal of this exciting summer to the Idyllwild Arts Academy Summer Jazz Workshop, which I attended from July 11 to July 24th for two weeks of intense jazz studies in both theory and performance. Thanks to Jeff Tower, who leads the program, I was able to attend the entire camp on scholarship — here’s a bit about what I got out of Idyllwild:
with Idyllwild classmates (left to right: Adrian Foy, Sarah Corza, Michelle Webb, Chloe Drazen, me, Wyatt Johnson)
In my two weeks at Idyllwild I spent two weeks up in those verdurous mountains with nothing but the piano and a bunch of ambitious young jazz musicians, surrounded by wooden structures and greenery, my electronics deemed useless with the lack of reception in the area (and frankly, with the lack of time to even think of using them). The best part, of course, was the opportunity to study with some of the most successful jazz musicians in my area — not to mention, alongside of some of the most accomplished student jazz musicians in Southern California. From the faculty concerts (where I connected with Lori Andrews — accomplished jazz harpist who performed with her husband, bassist Bart Samolis — who I’ll describe in depth in a later post) to the morning music career lectures, the teachers at Idyllwild devoted much of their time to exposing the extensive field of jazz to us. Here’s a glimpse of my everyday schedule at Idyllwild:
7:15 to 8:30 — Breakfast
9:00 — Theory (Week 1: Jeff Hellmer/Week 2: Matt Harris)
Time wasn’t wasted here — on the first day of classes we were all surprised with a theory test and a mini-audition with our respective teachers. Luckily I knew my theory via my studies in classical piano and in chord voicings, so I was able to study in the advanced theory classes — still, this was my first time taking an actual jazz theory class; it’s quite a different experience studying theory with the looming thought of improvisation always in mind.
10:05 — Piano Master Class (Week 1: Jeff Hellmer/Week 2: Matt Harris)
Our piano class had quite the age gap — in a group of nine students, four of us were entering our senior year and five others were just reaching their first year of high school. However, this allowed us to reach a happy medium in lessons for the two age groups; we were able to retouch on the basics (i.e. chord voicings and modes) and briefly visit some more advanced material (i.e. chord substitutions and improvisation).
with Idyllwild piano instructor, Matt Harris
with the high school senior pianists (left to right: Michelle Webb, me, Adrian Foy, Steven Gordon)
11:10 — Improvisation (Week 1: Rob Lockhart/Week 2: Ron Stout)
12:15 — Lunch
2:30 — Big Band (Week 1: Jeff Hellmer/Week 2: Lee Gause)
4:00 — Combos (Week 1: Jeff Jarvis/Week 2: Tom Hynes)
Every day consisted of the same six to seven-hour schedule — and we were left to decide for ourselves what to do with the rest of the time. Some days we found ourselves frantically packed into practice rooms; other days we wandered around the Idyllwild Academy campus, often headed towards its beautiful ampitheater:
There was also the constant opportunity to mix with other young jazz musicians — although, to be expected, females were definitely a minority — and I was exposed to new styles of music, new schools of thought; even though I was only at the camp for a mere two weeks, I left Idyllwild not only with what seemed like a truckload of new jazz ideas and a heightened ambition to pursue studies in jazz, but also a wide range of connections with young musicians who shared similar passions as mine — most importantly, a strangely unquestionable love for jazz.
For more information about the Idyllwild Jazz Summer Workshop, please click here.
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Human Nature/Solo/Vijay Iyer
P.S. As for campus life at Idyllwild, this should sum things up:
(vocals: Gio Jordan; piano: Steven Gordon; trumpet: Frankie Rustan; cameraman: Andrew Ohanian)
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