Teacher Resources (Video)

Jazz has been hailed as "America's original art form," and the annual Jazz Camp at UC San Diego is a five-day immersive summer program designed for intermediate to advanced level jazz musicians, ages 14–adult. Students work directly with internationally renowned jazz artists, exploring styles ranging from classic bebop to contemporary open-form. The Camp culminates in a finale concert performed by eight student ensembles, each under the direction of a faculty member. This program showcases an ensemble mentored by bassist Mark Dresser. Series: "UC San Diego Jazz Camp" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33927]

Asher Tobin Chodos’ adventurous arrangement of Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman places a quartet of jazz soloists within a symphonic context. Just as innovator Coleman sought to reframe jazz conventions in an idiosyncratic style, so Chodos’ arrangement seeks to reposition this 1959 work in a modern idiom, one that embraces and even expands upon the challenges of a composition that, in Chodos’ words, “occupies a middle ground between specificity and discrepancy.” Most importantly, this new take on a classic preserves the beauty and immediacy of Coleman’s original. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33857]

Jazz has been hailed as "America's original art form," and the annual Jazz Camp at UC San Diego is a five-day immersive summer program designed for intermediate to advanced level jazz musicians, ages 14–adult. Students work directly with internationally renowned jazz artists, exploring styles ranging from classic bebop to contemporary open-form. The Camp culminates in a finale concert performed by eight student ensembles, each under the direction of a faculty member. This program showcases an ensemble mentored by composer/pianist Anthony Davis. Series: "UC San Diego Jazz Camp" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33926]

Though acknowledging connections between World War II and his "Symphony in 3 Movements," which premiered in 1946, Igor Stravinsky stated the piece was not program music based on extra-musical events, insisting that "the Symphony is not programmatic. Composers combine notes. That is all." In truth the 3 sections were each written for different purposes, then combined into a whole that, while very appealing, is not quite unified in the sense of a traditional symphony. Stravinsky himself suggested that a more accurate title might be "Three Symphonic Movements." No matter its genesis or stated ambitions, this piece is driven by the same exuberant, triumphal spirit as contemporaneous pieces written during the War. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33854]

Jazz has been hailed as "America's original art form," and the annual Jazz Camp at UC San Diego is a five-day immersive summer program designed for intermediate to advanced level jazz musicians, ages 14–adult. Students work directly with internationally renowned jazz artists, exploring styles ranging from classic bebop to contemporary open-form. The Camp culminates in a finale concert performed by eight student ensembles, each under the direction of a faculty member. This program showcases an ensemble mentored by trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos. Series: "UC San Diego Jazz Camp" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33924]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable "Yet Unheard," a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

The title "Un Sourire" translates as "A smile." Olivier Messiaen, who composed the piece to mark the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death in 1991, did not attempt to imitate Mozart's style. Rather, he based his piece on the knowledge that Mozart's music was not necessarily a direct expression of his emotional life. Messiaen fashioned his gentle homage to reflect that aspect of Mozart's music combined with his own love of birdsong. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33851]

Jazz has been hailed as "America's original art form," and the annual Jazz Camp at UC San Diego is a five-day immersive summer program designed for intermediate to advanced level jazz musicians, ages 14–adult. Students work directly with internationally renowned jazz artists, exploring styles ranging from classic bebop to contemporary open-form. The Camp culminates in a finale concert performed by eight student ensembles, each under the direction of a faculty member. This program showcases an ensemble mentored by drummer Matt Wilson. Series: "UC San Diego Jazz Camp" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33923]

"When I sat down to write "Eating Flowers" I felt in many ways that I was responding to the energies of orchestral music whose colors I find irresistible: music of Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, and Messiaen particularly. My piece does not quote or even explicitly refer to this older music, but the energy and the color was certainly an influence. I titled my piece "Eating Flowers" to capture the sense of having tasted the delicious and delicate colors of my favorite orchestral music, which nourished my own creative spirit after having been digested." --- Hannah Lash Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33852]

Toru Takemitsu's "A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden" grew of out several influences. One inspiration was the composer's dreams, including a vision of a flock of white birds led by a single black bird. Another was his love of traditional Japanese gardens. A spark was provided by the American avant-garde composer John Cage, whose concept of indeterminate music - in which passages are left to chance or improvisation by the performers - was tremendously appealing to Takemitsu. The image of a five-sided garden also informs the piece's structure: five brief sections are built on five-note themes based on the pentatonic scale. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33853]