Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
Encyclopedia
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz
musician Thelonious Monk
, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R. Carter, its current president.
The Institute has held its International Jazz Competition since 1987 and organized jazz education programs in public schools throughout the United States and around the world, produced jazz events during the 1993 and 1997 Inaugural celebrations.
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance is a tuition-free two-year program that accepts one ensemble of musicians for each class. Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard
serves as artistic director. All of the students receive full scholarships, as well as stipends to cover their monthly living expenses. The students study both individually and as a small group, receiving personal mentoring, ensemble coaching, and lectures on the jazz tradition. They are also encouraged to experiment in expanding jazz in new directions through their compositions and performances. The institute is currently located at Loyola University New Orleans
.
, Pat Metheny
, Herbie Hancock
, Clark Terry
, Dave Brubeck
, Marian McPartland
, Quincy Jones
, and Diana Krall
have all served as judges at past competitions.
The competition is internationally recognized as a significant event for identifying and launching the careers of young aspiring jazz artists, such as Joshua Redman
, winner of the 1991 saxophone competition, Marcus Roberts
, winner of the 1987 piano competition, Ryan Kisor
, winner of the 1990 trumpet competition, and Joey DeFrancesco
, a finalist in the 1987 piano competition. The 1993 piano competition winner, Jacky Terrasson
, signed with Blue Note
Records. The 1998 vocals competition produced: the late Teri Thornton
, winner of the competition who signed with Verve
Records; second place winner Jane Monheit
who signed with Columbia
; semifinalist Tierney Sutton
who signed with Telarc; and third-place winner Roberta Gambarini
, whose American debut album, "Easy to Love", was nominated for a 2007 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. Aaron Parks
placed third in the piano competition of 2006 and was subsequently signed by Blue Note Records
.Dozens of other semifinalists have forged successful careers as jazz performers and educators.
television special. In 1995, he also sponsored the creation of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, now at Loyola University New Orleans
. He also initiated and served as executive producer of "A Celebration of America's Music," a one-hour ABC television special that was broadcast in 1996 and became the first jazz television special to air on network television in more than 25 years. In 1997, Carter served as executive producer for the 2nd annual television special, also broadcast on ABC. Carter has also served at the White House Conference for Culture and Diplomacy.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R. Carter, its current president.
The Institute has held its International Jazz Competition since 1987 and organized jazz education programs in public schools throughout the United States and around the world, produced jazz events during the 1993 and 1997 Inaugural celebrations.
College Program
One of the Institute's earliest goals was to create a unique college-level jazz program where the masters of jazz could pass on their expertise to the next generation of jazz musicians the way Thelonious Monk had done in his Manhattan apartment throughout the '50s and '60s. In September 1995, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance was launched and the first class of seven students began their intensive training with some of the world's greatest musicians.The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance is a tuition-free two-year program that accepts one ensemble of musicians for each class. Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
serves as artistic director. All of the students receive full scholarships, as well as stipends to cover their monthly living expenses. The students study both individually and as a small group, receiving personal mentoring, ensemble coaching, and lectures on the jazz tradition. They are also encouraged to experiment in expanding jazz in new directions through their compositions and performances. The institute is currently located at Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
.
Competitions
Since 1987, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz has presented the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. More than $60,000 in scholarships and prizes are awarded to musicians and composers each year. The competition focuses on a different instrument every year and features an all-star panel of judges. Branford MarsalisBranford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
, Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
, Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, and Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
have all served as judges at past competitions.
The competition is internationally recognized as a significant event for identifying and launching the careers of young aspiring jazz artists, such as Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...
, winner of the 1991 saxophone competition, Marcus Roberts
Marcus Roberts
Marcus Roberts is an American jazz pianist who has achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Roberts has also distinguished his solos by accompanying himself with walking basslines...
, winner of the 1987 piano competition, Ryan Kisor
Ryan Kisor
Ryan Kisor is an American jazz trumpeter.A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Kisor learned trumpet from his father Larry Kisor and started playing in a local dance band at age ten. Kisor began classical trumpet lessons at age 12, met Clark Terry when he was 15 , and played with all-star high school bands...
, winner of the 1990 trumpet competition, and Joey DeFrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco
Joey DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania...
, a finalist in the 1987 piano competition. The 1993 piano competition winner, Jacky Terrasson
Jacky Terrasson
Jacques-Laurent Terrasson is a jazz pianist better known as Jacky Terrasson.He was born in Germany, but his mother was American and his father French. He studied at the Berklee College of Music before playing in Chicago and New York City clubs. He gained increased attention on winning the 1993...
, signed with Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
Records. The 1998 vocals competition produced: the late Teri Thornton
Teri Thornton
Teri Thornton, born Shirley Enid Avery was an American jazz singer....
, winner of the competition who signed with Verve
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
Records; second place winner Jane Monheit
Jane Monheit
Jane Monheit is a jazz and adult contemporary vocalist for Concord Records. She has collaborated with artists such as Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins, Terence Blanchard and Tom Harrell, and has received Grammy nominations for two of her recordings.-Early life:Jane Monheit was raised in Oakdale, New York...
who signed with Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
; semifinalist Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton is an American jazz singer.A three-time Grammy Nominee for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" and "a selection by Jazzweek as Vocalist of the Year in 2005," Sutton was born in Wisconsin and was educated at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and the Berklee College of Music in...
who signed with Telarc; and third-place winner Roberta Gambarini
Roberta Gambarini
Roberta Gambarini is an Italian jazz singer. She was born in Turin, Italy, and started taking clarinet lessons at age twelve. She made her singing debut at age seventeen in jazz clubs around Northern Italy, then moved to Milan, where she worked in radio and television and began recording under her...
, whose American debut album, "Easy to Love", was nominated for a 2007 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks is a jazz pianist.-Personal:Aaron entered the University of Washington at the age of 14 through the Transition School and Early Entrance Program as a double major in computer science and music...
placed third in the piano competition of 2006 and was subsequently signed by Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
.Dozens of other semifinalists have forged successful careers as jazz performers and educators.
Thomas R. Carter
Carter has served as producer of the "Jazz at The White House" gala concert which was taped for a PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television special. In 1995, he also sponsored the creation of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, now at Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
. He also initiated and served as executive producer of "A Celebration of America's Music," a one-hour ABC television special that was broadcast in 1996 and became the first jazz television special to air on network television in more than 25 years. In 1997, Carter served as executive producer for the 2nd annual television special, also broadcast on ABC. Carter has also served at the White House Conference for Culture and Diplomacy.