 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
Greetings IAJE Michigan Members!
This is my first newsletter as state President and I would like to update you on our recent progress in many areas and invite you to participate in our future.
First of all, on behalf of all of the Board Members and myself, we would like to thank you for your vote of confidence in all of the elected board members who were announced in Brian Coyle's last newsletter. We pledge to represent your interests to the best of our ability. I want to especially invite even more direct communication between our members and our board. As your active President, I would invite you to let me know directly through email or through our fantastic website http://www.iajemichigan.com about your thoughts, questions, and suggestions about how IAJE Michigan can best serve you and jazz education throughout the state. We also hope to meet many of you at the upcoming Detroit International Jazz Festival (see below for IAJE festival events Labor Day weekend).
I would like to offer a very special thanks to our Past-President Brian Coyle for the tremendous job he has done over the past years in making this Michigan IAJE unit one of the top eight units in the nation. Brian has moved IAJE Michigan forward in all areas of jazz education. On a personal note, working with Brian as President-elect has given me the opportunity to get “on the job” training while not actually doing the work! Thankfully, Brian will still be around serving as Past-President and has graciously agreed to continue to direct the IAJE Michigan Reading Band. Thanks Brian!
I would also like to welcome Bill Sears as our new President-elect, Bob Nixon as Vice-President, Scott Cowan as Secretary, and Kevin Dobreff as Treasurer. Welcome to all of the new and returning board members.
As Brian mentioned in his last newsletter, we have made tremendous progress during the last three years on a number of fronts that were of the utmost importance to our members. Those include a vastly improved working relationship with MSBOA, a commitment for more jazz events at the Michigan Music Educators Conference, a much bigger and more visible presence at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and a new 2-year pilot Jazz Festival program with MSBOA.
Here are some concrete details of the progress we have made in the last six months in some areas identified by the membership as important:
- IAJE/MSBOA Partnership at State Jazz Festivals
As you all know, one of
the top concerns of our members has been our outreach to MSBOA, and our
desire to work with Paul Stanifer and MSBOA. I am happy to report
some
concrete and positive results of my meetings and negotiations
with Paul and Elon Jamison (their outgoing VP of jazz). I
have
also been in contact with Brian Coyle during all steps of this
process. We have come to an agreement with MSBOA on all major
points regarding
IAJE participation and presence in the MSBOA Jazz Festivals that were
raised at our board meetings. These include using clinics rather
than
sight-reading at MSBOA Jazz Festivals and the inclusion of IAJE judges
at MSBOA events. I worked closely with Elon and Paul to create a
document creating an MSBOA “Pilot Project” beginning this fall that
will be a partnership between MSBOA and IAJE.
- IAJE/MSBOA Partnership at the Detroit International Jazz Festival
Another important issue that was
raised by our board last September at
the Jazz Festival meeting was the lack of recognition, publicity, and
presence of IAJE and MSBOA at the Detroit Jazz Festival. I
mention MSBOA here since Paul Stanifer is a strong member and supporter
of IAJE as well, as you know. I have been working with Paul
Stanifer,
Ernie Rodgers, Denis Naranjo and Terri Pontremoli, (the new head of the
Detroit Jazz Festival) to improve and enlarge IAJE presence at the
Detroit Festival. During our two face to face meetings, we have
made
great progress. Terri has been very supportive of IAJE and our
efforts!
Virtually everything that we have requested from Terri at the Detroit International Jazz Festival has been granted. Some of these things include: the presence and importance of IAJE in Michigan and at the festival; signage/program recognition/press releases/visibility/placement of IAJE on equal footing with other participants and performers at the festival/IAJE logos and sponsorships/; music education scholarships – their importance and making sure Ernie Rodgers and all of the adjudicators have easy access to everything including carts, comfort, and amenities; better placement of IAJE and MSBOA bands at the festival.
The "Jam Academy Stage" is no more. We all agreed that it didn’t work. The IAJE Reading Band will perform in the main Amphitheatre Stage on Sunday at noon, September 2, followed by the MSBOA All-Star Big Band. Following these two bands will be Marion Hayden, the Charles Tolliver Big Band, Kurt Elling and WSU band, and the Gerald Wilson Big Band with Patti Austin. So we can see the progress to integrate the education events into the mainstream stages. To learn more about the festival and the education events at the festival go to http://www.detroitjazzfest.com.
Virtually everything that we have requested from Terri at the Detroit International Jazz Festival has been granted. Some of these things include: the presence and importance of IAJE in Michigan and at the festival; signage/program recognition/press releases/visibility/placement of IAJE on equal footing with other participants and performers at the festival/IAJE logos and sponsorships/; music education scholarships – their importance and making sure Ernie Rodgers and all of the adjudicators have easy access to everything including carts, comfort, and amenities; better placement of IAJE and MSBOA bands at the festival.
The "Jam Academy Stage" is no more. We all agreed that it didn’t work. The IAJE Reading Band will perform in the main Amphitheatre Stage on Sunday at noon, September 2, followed by the MSBOA All-Star Big Band. Following these two bands will be Marion Hayden, the Charles Tolliver Big Band, Kurt Elling and WSU band, and the Gerald Wilson Big Band with Patti Austin. So we can see the progress to integrate the education events into the mainstream stages. To learn more about the festival and the education events at the festival go to http://www.detroitjazzfest.com.
- IAJE Michigan Web Site
Our most significant public
visibility before the public remains the
IAJE Michigan website - http://www.iajemichigan.com.
Also, thanks to a
4-color advertisement in the upcoming Detroit International Jazz
Festival Program Guide, new visitors to our site become instant
prospects for membership. Our hope is that these visitors will
seize
the opportunity to join us and explore both the IAJE experience and all
the other Associate Member benefits!
But these impressions begin with our site content. This is where you can help! In addition to his tireless daily efforts to ensure IAJE Michigan puts forth a quality site, editor Denis Naranjo continues to do tremendous and creative work in keeping the site educationally topical, comprehensive, and current for upper and lower Michigan. He is leading a concerted effort to examine what is required to have the site offer more interactive content. I recently met with Denis to review all facets of this idea. Our review outlined and proposed numerous ideas to make the site THE place to go when searching on everything about jazz and jazz education in Michigan , not only for educators but for enthusiasts as well. We envision plans that would eventually rollout engaging interactive content, providing educators with a menu of answers to questions covering essential elements in jazz education and pedagogy. With this in mind, we invite you to proactively submit suggestions and educational content for the site. A separate mailing is forthcoming with additional details about this contributory role and how it can become a vital ingredient for our success. Please visit the site and send e-mails to Denis at iajemich@iajemichigan.com about your impressions, thoughts, and suggestions!
But these impressions begin with our site content. This is where you can help! In addition to his tireless daily efforts to ensure IAJE Michigan puts forth a quality site, editor Denis Naranjo continues to do tremendous and creative work in keeping the site educationally topical, comprehensive, and current for upper and lower Michigan. He is leading a concerted effort to examine what is required to have the site offer more interactive content. I recently met with Denis to review all facets of this idea. Our review outlined and proposed numerous ideas to make the site THE place to go when searching on everything about jazz and jazz education in Michigan , not only for educators but for enthusiasts as well. We envision plans that would eventually rollout engaging interactive content, providing educators with a menu of answers to questions covering essential elements in jazz education and pedagogy. With this in mind, we invite you to proactively submit suggestions and educational content for the site. A separate mailing is forthcoming with additional details about this contributory role and how it can become a vital ingredient for our success. Please visit the site and send e-mails to Denis at iajemich@iajemichigan.com about your impressions, thoughts, and suggestions!
IAJE Toronto 2008
IAJE's biggest and greatest event of the year is just around the corner as well. The 35th IAJE Annual Conference comes to Toronto, Canada, January 9-12, 2008. Please visit our website http://www.iajemichigan.com and the international website http://www.iaje.org to get all the information about the conference and to make reservations as well. Remember that you will need to allow plenty of time to get a passport for travel to Canada. There are links to all of this information on the IAJE Michigan website.
IAJE Michigan Activities at Detroit International Jazz Festival
On Sunday, September 2, 2007, there are several really important IAJE Michigan activities planned:
- At 12 Noon on the Carhartt Amphitheatre Stage in Hart Plaza in Downtown Detroit, the IAJE Michigan Reading Band will be performing. This is a great band that sight-reads and performs new published arrangements for schools of all levels Please stop by to listen and enjoy. Also please say hello to all and take this chance to get acquainted.
- At 2:00 pm in the Hotel Ponchartrain Lobby there will be a meeting of the IAJE Michigan Executive Board. All of you, board members or not, are invited to participate.
- At 3:00 pm in the Hotel Ponchartrain Lobby there will be a General Membership Meeting of the IAJE Michigan membership. Please make plans to participate in this meeting. We need to hear what you think and suggestions about initiatives we can pursue in the upcoming year.
The Hotel Ponchartrain is
directly across Jefferson
Avenue from Hart Plaza.
We
all look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the
Detroit International Jazz Festival!
Detroit International Jazz Festival!
Remember that we are here to serve you. If you have items that you would like to discuss feel free to contact me anytime via email (I am online 24/7) or the IAJE Michigan website. If you have something you would like to discuss at the meetings please come and participate!
I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible and to serving your interests and the interests of Jazz Education in Michigan.
Danny Jordan
IAJE Michigan President
Coordinator of Jazz - Oakland University
d2jordan@oakland.edu
