The Small Jazz Ensembles provide a great opportunity for musicians to regularly rehearse, and perform jazz standards, originals, and covers with their fellow students.
Audition Date - Thursday, September 28, 2023
Time - 2:30 pm - 3:20 pm
Room - 35 (on the lowest floor of the Music Building)
No sign up necessary.
Audition process
Students will be asked to perform preselected jazz standards, solo over chord changes, as well as sight read. Lead sheets will be available. There are multiple combos created each quarter in which students are placed by faculty based on their audition performance. Lead sheets and charts will be provided for all players at the audition.
Jazz Workshop - MUSEN – 345/545
Rehearsals are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30 – 3:20*
*Placement into ensembles will be posted on the bulletin board next to room 14 (Music Building) after auditions.
Director Bio:
Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing to a wide range of artists such as Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, and David Bowie.
As a youngster, Cuong's intense dedication and love for music led him to a full scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies with a distinction in performance. Transitioning from his studies in Boston, he moved to New York in 1994 and began his career actively leading various groups while touring extensively throughout the world. As a leader, Cuong has released eight recordings, each making critics’ lists of the 10 best recordings of their respective years and has received rave reviews from notable publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, the Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, JazzTimes and Downbeat. Each record displays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory as a trumpet player, blurring all stylistic borders while developing his own compositional aesthetic and sound world.
Awards and honors that Cuong has garnered include grants from the Royalty Research Foundation, the Donald E. Petersen Professorship, ArtistTrust, 4Culture, CityArts and the Colbert Award for Excellence. Cuong is currently associate professor and chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington and was awarded the University of Washington's prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award in his third year on faculty. In 2002 and 2006, Cuong was a recipient of the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He’s been recognized as one of the top 50 Jazz Artists in an article called “The New Masters” from the British magazine, “Classic CD” and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics’ Society. Amazon listed Vu’s “Come Play With Me” on their “The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time.”