The North Carolina Jazz Festival has recently added to its Jazz Education Program a partnership with Dreams INC, a local non-profit organization which provides youth in need, with high quality classes in the literary, visual, and performing arts. This is done through afterschool programs and this year we added a summer jazz program for students.
Our participation in this program is to fund local professional jazz musicians to give monthly workshops under the direction of local guitarist Roger Davis, teaching artist at Dreams. We have had an exciting year so far…In January, we had local musician and UNCW professor, Mike Waddell, come and teach the students all about the clarinet and saxophone. In February, we had Jack Krupicka educate the students on piano. March, we had Vince Stout bring his steel drum and he perform everything from classical music to jazz and everything in between! And in April, we had local bassist Doug Irving show how the bass is played, and encourage the students to practice, practice, practice…
This summer, we had local drummer Paige Ashley Zalman give basic drum lessons to students at Dreams and local musician/band director/teacher David Tyson played recognizable numbers on his trumpet and did lessons on guitar as well.
We are pleased to be able to take part in spreading the artistry of jazz to students who might not otherwise have this opportunity, and at the same time recognize the high level of musicianship in our local jazz community.
It is our mission to inspire the next generation of jazz enthusiasts and students through free workshops and professionally led master classes.
