Stanford Jazz Workshop

History

Stanford Jazz Workshop (SJW) was founded in 1972 to create an environment conducive to learning, experiencing and appreciating jazz. Today, SJW remains focused on its original mission: bring the best performers and teachers of jazz together with listeners and students of all abilities and backgrounds. The organization's activities embody this mission and include educational programs that are respected world-wide. SJW's faculty has included Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Ray Brown, Jimmy Cobb, Slide Hampton, Mulgrew Miller, Branford Marsalis, Ray Drummond, Mundell Lowe, Dena DeRose, Steve Davis, Jim Rotondi, the Heath Brothers, Sheila Jordan, Geri Allen, Jim Cullum, Phil Woods, and many others. Many emerging jazz stars are past participants of SJW programs, including Joshua Redman, Larry Grenadier, Bill Stewart, Sasha Dobson, Taylor Eigsti and Jenny Scheinman.

Specialties

Founded in 1972, the Stanford Jazz Workshop offers innovative after-school jazz programs for middle school and high school students. The Giant Steps Big Band offers regional classes and performances in locations around the Peninsula and South Bay. Open by audition to talented middle school students, the bands are led by leading jazz educators who specialize in teaching at the middle school level. Support faculty give weekly master classes on individual instruments, and additional instruction and practice is provided via online practice tools. Our summer jazz immersion programs are held on the beautiful campus of Stanford University. With classrooms, performance venues, food, and dormitories all in close proximity, SJW becomes a self-contained jazz village in which students stay focused on their jazz studies and interact easily and often with our great faculty and artists. Facilitating musical interaction between generations of jazz musicians is central to the mission of the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and the excellent and safe facilities of the Braun Music Center help make this possible. We have week-long camps for middle school, high school, and adult musicians. Our summer jazz immersion programs are integrated with the annual Stanford Jazz Festival, a summer-long series of exciting performances by the world's greatest jazz artists on the campus of Stanford University.