PULLMAN, Wash. — The latest educational guides are out and they say Washington State University is a great place to study jazz. Both Down Beat and Jazz Times magazines have released their new guides of the best places for a jazz education and WSU’s School of Music and Theatre Arts is listed in both journals.
Down Beat’s “Where to Study Jazz 2003” includes Washington State University among 108 U.S. college and university programs (unranked). WSU is included among 20 programs in the western United States and one of only two programs in the Pacific Northwest.
The “Jazz Education Guide 2002/2003” presented by Jazz Times Magazine includes WSU among 240 U.S. college and university programs (unranked) and among only six programs in the Pacific Northwest. WSU also made the list of 118 U.S. Music Industry Programs (unranked) and among only five programs in the Pacific Northwest.
“I am proud to be associated with such an exceptional group of students and faculty, and I am gratified to see that they are recognized for the many wonderful things they do,” said Greg Yasinitsky, WSU coordinator of Jazz Studies.
These are just the latest indications of the university’s prominence in jazz studies. Last May, graduate student Julie Silvera, a jazz vocalist, won Down Beat magazine’s “most outstanding college vocal performance” as part of its 25th Annual Student Music Awards.” That award followed her third “best vocal performance in the alto division” in the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. This past summer, Matt Reid, a sophomore advertising/jazz studies major, placed second in the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition held in Manchester, England. And, there are conversations in the works that could lead Professor David Turnbull and the Trumpet Ensemble to perform at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas, next May.
