International Jazz Exchange
VCU’s Jazz Studies Program is excited to announce a year-long partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa to bring together American and African students in musical and personal understanding.
Check out the travelogue from our July/August 2012 trip
The project was developed by Professor Antonio J. Garcia, head of the Jazz Studies Program and Professor Neil Gonsalves at UKZN. VCU students participating in the project will include:
Victor Haskins, trumpet
Justin Esposito, bass
C.J. Wolfe, drums
Brendan Schnabel, tenor sax
Trey Sorrells, alto sax
Chris Ryan, guitar
VCU Jazz students who will participate in the international exchange.
The VCU team first heads to Durban near the end of July. The UKZN team will visit VCU the last week of September. Four new commissioned works for jazz sextet will follow, along with rehearsals and the continual exchange of resources, dialogues and musical ideas via the Internet. The installation of Source-Connect software for both teams will provide ISDN-line audio quality operating over the Internet, allowing the teams to perform for and coach each other’s teams while still at home a hemisphere apart. The VCU team returns to Durban in early March 2013, and the visit will include performing a joint concert on Wednesday, March 6 in Durban. In late March the UKZN team visits VCU, and both groups will present a joint concert Thursday, March 28. Both concerts will be recorded for selective inclusion in a collaboratively released CD.
This project is the latest in a series of international collaborations that the Jazz Studies Program has engaged in. This summer, several VCU faculty and students will participate in the first VCU International Jazz Camp in Izmir, Turkey, which was created by alumnus Emre Kartari.
