Tuition: $875

Audition

Students should prepare one ballad and one uptempo tune, memorizing the melody and changes.

Please choose from the following:

Ballads – Say It Over and Over Again (as recorded by John Coltrane), Lonely Woman (Ornette Coleman), Ruby, My Dear (Thelonious Monk), Meaning of the Blues (as recorded by Michael Brecker, composed by Bobby Troup)

Up Tempo – Ugetsu (Cedar Walton), 52nd Street Theme (Thelonious Monk), Captain Marvel (Chick Corea), In and Out (Joe Henderson)

Concert key lead sheets for the above tunes can be found here.

Students will also sightread a piece, provided at the audition.

Audition Date: April 30, 2023

For more information and audition prescreening, please contact Young Musicians Program director Erik Jekabson at erik@cjc.edu or call the CJC at 510.845.5373

Dr. Michael Zilber is the director of the Jazzschool’s multiple DownBeat award-winning Advanced High School Jazz Workshop.

To Apply

Contact Erik Jekabson for consultation and audition pre-screening erik@cjc.edu

Refund Policy

Tuition is non-refundable.

 

High School Jazz Intensive Faculty Information

About Dr. Michael Zilber (saxophone)

Michael Zilber is a renowned saxophonist and composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Described by NEA Jazz Master David Liebman as one of the best players and composers around, Zilber has performed and recorded with many jazz luminaries over the years, including Liebman, Miroslav Vitous, and Steve Smith. ALL ABOUT JAZZ has hailed him as one of the true masters of modern jazz saxophone.

 

Zilber has co-led several notable groups, including with drumming great Steve Smith, and has released 12 CDs as a leader, including the top 20 recording Reimagined: Jazz Standards, Volume 1. He frequently collaborates with guitar virtuoso John Stowell, and their 2015 Origin Records recording Live Beauty made DownBeat magazine’s “best of the year” list.

 

Zilber is also a sideman in various prominent projects, including playing in and writing for SF-based Electric Squeezebox Orchestra. He leads the Jazzschool Advanced High School Jazz Workshop in Berkeley, California, and teaches composition, advanced improv, and ensembles at the California Jazz Conservatory. Zilber holds a Doctorate in composition from NYU. His recent release, East West: Music for Big Bands, is a beautifully packaged double CD that embraces multiplicity and showcases his commanding and ever-expanding creative purview.

 

About Peter Horvath (piano/keyboards)

Peter Horvath is a Hungarian-born contemporary jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer. He began taking classical piano lessons at the age of six and won the National Jazz Combo Competition in Hungary at 17. After attending the Vienna Conservatory of Music, he moved to the United States in 1983 to study at the Berklee College of Music. Since then, he has performed, recorded, and toured with a wide range of world-class artists, including Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Charles McPherson, Arturo Sandoval, Ledisi, and many others. Horvath currently teaches at the California Jazz Conservatory, Saint Mary’s College of California, and Stanford Jazz Consortium.

 

Horvath’s first solo recording, FOREIGN MATTER, was well received in the national contemporary jazz radio scene, and his latest album, ABSOLUTE REALITY, features acclaimed jazz musicians such as Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, and Lenny White. The album showcases Horvath’s original compositions that blend various styles, including funk jazz, Latin, and straight-ahead jazz, as well as mid-tempo tunes and ballads. Horvath’s music reflects the diversity of the Bay Area’s musical scene and his extensive touring and recording experience.

 

About Jason Lewis (drums)

Jason Lewis is a percussionist who graduated from San Jose State University’s classical percussion program under the direction of Tony Cirone of the San Francisco Symphony. He has taught privately in the Bay Area, coached at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and performed clinics at schools in the San Jose area. Lewis has played with various musicians, including Gary Burton, James Moody, Larry Coryell, and Regina Carter. He has performed with the San Jose Symphony and the San Jose Civic Light Opera, and has toured and recorded with Boz Scaggs, Michael Brook, Djivan Gasparyan, Ann Dyer, and Taylor Eigsti. Lewis has also been featured on several recordings, TV shows, video games, and movie soundtracks.

 

About Jayla Chee (bass)

Jayla Chee, a San Francisco Bay Area native, began playing upright bass during her sophomore year of high school after previously playing the trumpet. She participated in programs such as the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, YoungArts, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra. Chee has played music internationally in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as across the United States. She has performed with renowned artists such as Kurt Elling, Sean Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Derrick Hodge, Allison Miller, Randy Napoleon, Vince Lateano, Pasquale Grasso, and Andrew Speight. Currently, Chee is studying jazz bass performance with Gerald Cannon at The Juilliard School and divides her time between California and New York.