In the autumn of 2023, I spent three months in Chicago on a Fulbright Research Fellowship in the Music Department at Columbia College. My research focused on American jazz education and the work of William Russo, the composer, bandleader, and educator who founded the department.
Russo was a prominent and influential figure in American music in the second half of the 20th century. A highly versatile artist both as a performer and as a composer, Russo’s compositions cover almost every style from symphony to rock opera. Throughout his career, he has worked with such notable musicians as Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Yehudi Menuhin, Dizzy Gillespie, Corky Siegel, Orbert Davis, Billie Holiday, Annie Ross, Lennie Tristano.
He has also written four books on composition and orchestration, of which I would highlight his „A New Approach” (1983), which I recommend to all jazz musicians (especially singers!) who want to get into composing music, especially songs.
Russo believed in diversity both as an educator and as a teacher. It was his idea that Columbia College should be accessible to all, regardless of background, religion, financial background, or prior musical education. This idea came in the form of Open Admission, which means that there is no entrance exam for one of the department’s courses, the BA in Music, and anyone can apply. Students wishing to study can be placed in the appropriate study groups based on level assessments before the first semester.
Russo was convinced that if someone has good ability and ambition, they can start studying music at any age. In his opinion, young adults, aged 18-20, can learn the basics of music much more quickly and thoroughly than children, if they are really committed and study hard.
Jazz education at Columbia College
My goal was to identify segments of American jazz education that could help me, as an educator, to improve jazz education in this country. This was not an easy task, because the structure and organisation of arts education in Europe and the US is very different. So I tried to focus on what are the pedagogical approaches that could be useful for us at the basic, intermediate or advanced level.
In addition to the BA in Music, there are two other music majors: Contemporary, Jazz and Popular Music, and Music Composition. It is important to note that the term „contemporary” in America refers not only to contemporary classical music, but to all genres that exist today, including jazz, pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, etc. These styles are taught within the same department because they come from the same African-American music culture. Columbia College tries to prepare its students from a very practical point of view, preparing them to be proficient in multiple genres. Composition students compose film scores and classical pieces, but they also write music for theatre productions, ballet, and computer games. Here I would like to mention the name of Ilya Levinson, a composer, who is an excellent teacher, a great professional and has helped me a lot in my research.
There is a high degree of interchangeability between the different disciplines: students can study composition in the performing arts course, and in the same way composition students can study performing arts. Students also have the opportunity to attend classes in the Music Business or Audio Technology departments.
In addition to these courses, the Music Composition for the Screen (Master of Fine Arts) department is ranked No. 1 in its category in the Hollywood Reporter 2023 Industry Survey.
Scott Hall, a professor at Columbia College, described the school: ‘We’re not better than all the other schools, we’re just very different from all of them. We provide an opportunity to learn music that is not available at other schools. We have to be very creative in how we develop our curriculum and our teaching methods to reach everyone in the classroom, no matter what their skill level.’
The majority of the school’s music department is made up of students who want to study technology and management in addition to becoming musicians. They learn a lot of things in the basic course, such as how to write contracts, negotiate, advertise and produce promotional material. This is very necessary because an American artist has to be very independent and autonomous.
In summary, I would like to highlight below the points that might be useful for us in jazz education.
- Open Admission is an opportunity for people who have not had the chance to study music before.
- Diversity and openness of education: students could study other genres besides jazz, such as pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, gospel.
- Within the framework of jazz education, subjects such as composition and songwriting for all students, critical writing, music programming, management, etc. could be included.
- More practical lessons could include stage presence – especially for singers -, presenting, microphone use.
I would also point out that, in addition to the more popular styles, there is a very serious contemporary classical composition project in the New Music Ensemble, where students perform their own compositions in a classical large orchestra formation. Their leader is Sebastian Hydts, Dean of the Music Department.
Unfortunately, there is not enough space to describe the work of the singing department, which was greatly helped by the head of the department, Typhanie Monique, and Bobbi Wilsyn, who has taught at Columbia for 40 years. Furthermore, the material collected on the work of William Russo is still being processed and I plan to write about it in a larger study.
