Jazz & Contemporary Music

Longy’s JCM program provides an open environment in which students experiment and create to find their artistic voice. Engaging in improvisation, composition, and performance practices, untethered to any one discipline or genre, students will build off the foundations of jazz and explore beyond—to modern contemporary, global folk traditions, bluegrass, Rock, Hip Hop, as well as other popular idioms— to define the music of the now and of the future. Students will also have the opportunity to work with partners like the New England Jazz Collaborative and our ensemble-in-residence Imagine Orchestra.

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.

Members of the Latinx Student Union perform “La Llorona” (Chavela Vargas)

Your Faculty

Eric Hofbauer, chair, guitar Naseem Alatrash, folk traditions ensemble Sara Bielanski, voice Leo Blanco, piano, composition, ensembles Dave Bryant*, ensembles Peter Cassino, piano, improvisation, ensembles Peter Evans, composition Ana Guigui, voice Charlie Kohlhase*, ensembles John Lockwood, upright/electric bass, ensembles Nando Michelin*, ensembles Randall Pingrey, trombone Noah Preminger, saxophone Matt Savage, piano Ben Schwendener, composition Neal Smith, drums Ilona Tipp, vocals Nikola Tomic ´, trumpet Sylvie Zakarian*, percussion *no private studio

Degrees & Diplomas

Graduate Performance Diploma Master of Music Degree

Get to know our new artistic partner, the New England Jazz Collaborative

>> Consider adding a Graduate Performance

Diploma in JCM to your MM and take the music world by storm with your versatility.

Faculty Profile Matt Savage

Matt Savage is a jazz and classical pianist who has been performing professionally since childhood. He teaches in the Collaborative Piano and Jazz & Contemporary Music departments at Longy.

One thing I really enjoy about Longy’s teaching and learning community is how closely everything is intertwined. There’s a lot of conversation between different courses and departments, which can help students adapt to the changing and diverse music landscape of today. As both a classical and jazz pianist, I’ve seen how there are more and more opportunities to create an interplay between different aesthetics in today’s music scene. There’s something so special about Longy’s environment, especially how tight-knit our programs are. This academic setting allows students to build long-lasting musical relationships, and to find their artistic voices. Longy doesn’t just give students seeds of creative ideas, but also the roots—and the right kind of soil for growing.