Welcome to the CSU Jazz Summer Workshop!

Join CSU Jazz Faculty Wil Swindler, Peter Sommer, Shilo Stroman, and more for our third annual CSU Jazz Summer Workshop. The workshop will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, focusing on small-group jazz playing and improvisation. Students will also study jazz history, listening, and theory and attend instrument-specific masterclasses. Full schedule details will be released after registration closes.

This is an excellent opportunity for middle and high school students to unravel the mystery of jazz improvisation by working with our excellent jazz faculty at CSU. We can help you make sense of those chord changes and equip you with tools and strategies to improvise better and improve over time. This workshop will provide the information, practice techniques, and experience to grow as a Jazz musician.

On the last day of the workshop, there will be a faculty concert at the end of day one and a student concert at 3:30 p.m. in Griffin Hall at CSU. All classes will be held in our world-class facility, the University Center for the Arts, at 1400 Remington in Fort Collins on the CSU campus.

There will be a brief skills assessment on the first day for performance and jazz theory to place students at the correct levels for theory class and combo. For the performance assessment, students should prepare:

1. Jazz Etude or Jazz tune (just show us what you can do)
2. Improvisation with backing track (OPTIONAL)
3. Be ready for a short sight-reading
4. Drummers - in place of the Jazz etude/tune, be prepared to play time a few different styles to demonstrate your ability.

Once registration closes, we will email all registered students to review this information.

If you have any questions, email wil.swindler@colostate.edu.