Jazz

Jazz is an integral part of musical life at the Sunderman Conservatory. Each year, 18 to 22 students are selected via audition for the Jazz Ensemble. The ensemble studies myriad styles of jazz, encompassing swing, Latin, fusion, bop, and the Great American Songbook ... and experiences a vast range of performance and engagement opportunities.

Guest artists performing with the Jazz Ensemble in recent years include: Chad Eby, Ariel Pocock, Tim Warfield, Carmen Bradford, and Sharel Cassity.

Tours and Travel

• The Jazz Ensemble toured Europe numerous times during the past three decades; in 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2015 with performances at the Montreux, Vienné, Jazz a Juan, Istanbul, and North Sea Jazz Festivals as well as presenting concerts in Amsterdam, Paris, Bruges, Heidelberg, Athens, Istanbul, and Venice.
• The Ensemble has opened for Ray Brown and Phil Woods and performed with such world-renowned soloists as Paquito D’Rivera, the Boston Brass, Denis DiBlasio, Lew Soloff, Graham Breedlove, Lewis Nash, Carmen Bradford, Hector Martignon, and Delfeayo Marsalis. The GCJE is proud to have performed as part of Howard University's 2017 celebration of jazz. The Jazz Ensemble most recently performed as a featured group at the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival in Rockville, Maryland.

Students with an interest in jazz often live in The Blue Note House, and they are often members of the Jazz Appreciation Society - an on-campus, student led organization that sponsors an annual swing dance and works to bring professional jazz artists to Gettysburg to perform. The Jazz curriculum also includes jazz combos, private improvisation lessons, and courses in Jazz History. Students can focus their studies as a music major with additional jazz studies, either in the Bachelor of Music in Performance or Bachelor of Arts degrees.