北德州大学

The Jazz Studies program at the University of North Texas provides you with an intense musical experience. It's large enough to constitute its own scene while enabling you to receive individual attention from faculty members.

You can pursue a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies in one of three tracks: performance, composition and pedagogy. At the doctoral level, we offer a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance with a concentration in Jazz Studies.

In lessons, small and large ensembles, classes, concerts, recitals and independent projects, our students develop as performers, composers and teachers. They've earned a wide range of recognitions over the years, including 10 DownBeat Student Music Awards in 2014.

Students participate in the region's musical life while at UNT and later join a large community of successful jazz alumni.

Setting the standard

The Division of Jazz Studies enjoys a long tradition of excellence, establishing the nation's first undergraduate Jazz Studies program in 1946. We always seek new musical directions to remain connected to today's jazz music scene and other music professions that our graduates enter.

Interest in our program is strong. We currently have 60 to 70 master's students and nine doctoral students and graduate about 17 graduate students each year. Our primary goals are to:

Prepare you for a successful career as a jazz performer, composer, arranger or educator
Cultivate your knowledge of and appreciation for the jazz tradition and the broader musical traditions from which it's grown
Encourage your creative efforts and share your results on university, local, regional, national and international levels in performances and recordings
Help you enter the profession through interactions with guest artists and learning about music industry entrepreneurship

Performance, research and other learning opportunities

You'll have many performance opportunities to choose from, including:

• Nine jazz lab bands, among them the six-time Grammy nominated One O'Clock Lab Band®, directed by Jay Saunders
• Three Jazz Singers groups guided by Jennifer Barnes
• L-5 and Super 400 Electric Guitar Ensembles directed by Fred Hamilton and the graduate teaching fellows he mentors
• Latin Jazz Lab directed by José Aponte
• Jazz Chamber Music (approximately 25 small groups)
• Jazz Repertory Ensemble
• Zebras (a contemporary music ensemble)
• U-Tubes Jazz Trombone Ensemble

The UNT Music Library is one of the nation's best music libraries for jazz research. It features an extensive collection of books, periodicals, scores and special collections, and a recorded sound collection of more than 1 million items.

Each semester, we welcome guest artists for master classes, concerts and multi-day residencies. Our Jazz Lecture Series and Gomez Artist Residency have featured Ravi Coltrane, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Darcy James Argue, Nasheet Waits, Greg Osby, Peter Erskine, Christian McBride, John Clayton and Peter Eldridge. Guest artists are listed at the sites for the Gomez Endowment and the Jazz Lecture Series.

Degree requirements

Master of Music degree

• 11 credit hours of required Jazz Studies courses
• 6 credit hours of electives in music outside the Jazz Studies field
• 15 credit hours in the performance, composition or pedagogy track

All students must pass a comprehensive exam covering all graduate course work in Jazz Studies.