NYJC comes to Yorkshire

In the recent Arts Council England announcement, the National Youth Jazz Collective was was pleased to be announced as one of the organisations to remain an NPO (national portfolio organisation), meaning their funding is secured until 2022.

Following that good news, NYJC have announced that they will be extending their Workshops to five new locations in addition to London and Hampshire; Essex, Bedfordshire, Bristol, Leicester and South Yorkshire.

In each of these locations, 6 full day workshops will take place between October and June. The sessions will be run by professional jazz musicians with each small group working together as a band throughout the year. Musicians will work on improvising, learning new tunes, creative leadership skills and more. Each session culminates in an evening concert, allowing each group to showcase what they've worked on. The faculty of tutors includes some of the UK's finest improvising musicians including Nikki Yeoh, Tom Hewson, Issie Barratt, Kim Macari, Tori Freestone and more.

Musicians of all instruments aged between 8 and 18 are welcome and sessions are tailored for all abilities.

To find out more, visit the National Youth Jazz Collective website.

Calling All Young Female Jazz Musicians

Young female jazz musicians between the age of 14 and 18 are being invited to attend 4 residential workshop weekends run by the National Youth Jazz Collective and their Creative Leadership Ensemble programme.

Each weekend will focus on developing the compositions of each participant to a high level by working on improvisation, composition, leadership and performance skills. Groups will be lead by a number of highly regarded female tutors and each weekend will culminate in an informal concert.

The enrolment fee for the entire programme, encompassing the four weekends, is £200. Financial support is available in the form of bursaries (including full scholarship bursaries).

The dates of the weekends are as follows (these will be in Saxmundham) -

18th - 20th November 2016
3rd- 5th February 2017
17th – 19th March 2017
30th June – 2nd July 2017

Interested parties should register their interest by emailing NYJC Artistic Director  Issie Barratt by 23rd September. 

Click here to see the CLE ensemble in action at King's Place.

Click here to email Issie Barratt to ask for more information or to register interest.

Scholarship offer to attend the International French Jazz Summer School

For those among you who enjoy both good weather and great jazz education, the International French Jazz Summer School should definitely be on your radar if it isn't already.

Taking place in a chateau in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France, three courses run each summer - the main jazz course, a specialist singers course and the advanced improvisors course.

It has been announced that a very small number of scholarships are available to attend this year's advanced improvisors course which takes place between 20th and 27th August. These scholarships are available to front line players and bass players. This scholarship will reduce the cost of the course from £855.00 to £350.00. This price includes the tuition, accommodation, breakfast and evening meals.

The tutors leading this course will be Simon Purcell and Julian Siegel. Participants will focus on


•    contemporary approaches to jazz improvisation
•    repertoire - non-standard song forms
•    contemporary approaches to melody, harmony and rhythm
•    interactive rhythm section
•    devising effective approaches to practising jazz improvisation


Those interested in finding out more about the scholarships available should contact jazzsummerschool@aol.com. To learn about the course structure, location, tutors etc of this and other two course offered, visit the Jazz Summer School website.