Jazz

Jazz is one of the twentieth century's most significant artistic achievements, a music rooted in African-American culture that has become a global language, influencing virtually every genre that followed it. To study jazz at conservatoire level is to engage with a tradition that demands both technical mastery and creative risk-taking, combining rigorous instrumental and vocal training with improvisation, ensemble work, composition and a deep understanding of the music's history, theory and cultural significance.

At Leeds Conservatoire you will explore jazz's roots and evolution across three interconnected areas: historical and critical study, repertoire analysis, and creative application. You will analyse landmark recordings and compositions, engaging with the work of the great innovators who shaped the tradition, and use that analytical understanding to inform and develop your own compositions and performances. Improvisation is central to the curriculum, as is ensemble playing across a range of small and larger formats.

You will develop as both a skilled performer and a thinking musician, capable of applying deep knowledge of the genre to your creative practice. The programme runs over three years full time.

Graduates from jazz programmes build careers as performers, bandleaders, composers, session musicians, music producers, educators and arrangers. The improvisational intelligence and rhythmic fluency that jazz training develops are valued across a wide range of musical genres, making jazz graduates adaptable to different professional contexts. Many graduates also move into music education, both in formal settings and as private instrumental teachers.

Postgraduate study in jazz performance, music composition or music education is an option for those who wish to deepen their expertise or develop an academic or educational career.