UHS Jazz Program

Starting this 2020-21 school living in a global pandemic and with performing arts communities around the SF Bay Area (and the world) completely shut down for live, in-person performances, all of us performers and music educators wondered how/what music would look like in the second half of 2020. I decided the best course of action coming into this school year would be to try and run our music performing program as close as possible to what life was like before distance learning was mandated.

As a result, the focus became to play and record as much music as possible. The students enrolled in the Jazz Combo Class and the Jazz and Contemporary Music Ensemble courses entered into a distance learning space that has them playing scales/scales exercises throughout the various musical keys, a wide repertoire of jazz/improved music styles, learning about improvisation/improvising on their own, and recording nearly everything that we do.  Students submit their performance recordings to me, I uploaded them into my Digital Audio Workstation and I begin to edit, EQ, mix, master and create playable/sharable audio files for our community to enjoy.

The students in your UHS music community are working so diligently to bring the joy, that only music can, to this and the greater community-at-large. I couldn’t be more proud of these musicians, what they’ve accomplished, and I’m continually honored to be on this journey as a musician and educator with University High School.

~Terrence Brewer

Jazz and Contemporary Music Ensemble 

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