Music Department Launches Diploma in Jazz Studies
By Daniela Alejandra Guevara Sotomayor
November 20, 2023
On October 13th, 2023 VIU students currently enrolled in a music course received an email from Brent Jarvis, chair of the music department announcing the new Diploma in Jazz Studies.
Jarvis believes music teachers in the department will prepare students to become functioning musicians upon graduation so that they can make a living from their craft. Registration is now open and students will hear whether or not they have been accepted in early June 2024.
James Mark, a music instructor at VIU, highlighted that this diploma offers a diverse range of electives for a broader student audience beyond the department. Many of these elective courses are already being offered, but new ones will supplement these starting next fall.
The Jazz Studies builds professional skills in a variety of performance genres, offering hands-on experience through ensembles, musical theory and composition, keyboarding, multi-track recording and film scoring, sound recording, music history, and music as a business. Students select Music elective courses on music appreciation, musicianship, notation and score preparation, and choir.
For those students without the required prerequisites, Jarvis recommends a proactive approach. “Students are advised to reach out to their respective instructors for further guidance.”
Rosemary Lindsay teaches choir and voice in the department, but students from all over campus are enrolled. “Quite often, I have had students in both the VIU Singers and in the Jazz Choir that are not strictly in the music department, but have an interest and audition and get into singing in those two choirs. So those are always open to anybody on campus.”
The proposed diploma contrasts significantly to the way the music degree used to run. The last cohort of the 4-year jazz degree will graduate this year, and then the Diploma program will take its place.
Jarvis says, “We’ve not had students enrolling in that program for a few years as it was determined by administration that we should see whether or not that degree is warranted.”
