The Department of Jazz Performance operates within the Faculty of Multidisciplinary Music and maintains ongoing academic and artistic ties with the Department of Composition, the Multidisciplinary Vocal Department, the Eastern Music Department, and the Faculty of Dance.
The curriculum combines the acquisition of performance skills in various jazz styles with improvisation, ear training, harmony, jazz history, listening, idioms of the jazz language across the historical timeline, and rhythm.
In addition to jazz performance skills, the program offers study tracks focused on creativity, including composition, arranging for rhythm-section instruments, arranging for wind ensembles, big-band arranging, and vocal arranging. Studies take place through individual instrumental instruction with leading jazz musicians in Israel, various ensembles, and classroom-based courses.
We host master classes with artists from Israel and abroad, participate in jazz festivals, hold jazz competitions, and engage in collaborative performance through a weekly jam session. Students in the department are exposed to a wide range of musical styles, which are integrated into their creative world and shape them into multidisciplinary, contemporary, and challenging musicians.
As part of the program leadership’s educational philosophy, emphasis is placed not only on refining students’ instrumental and improvisational abilities, but also on helping them discover their personal voice as Israeli performers and creators in the fields of jazz and music more broadly.
