SAXOPHONE
STUDY
at the
University of
Washington
School of
Music
Michael S. Brockman, Faculty
o Private studio instruction in classical
and jazz saxophone
o Alto, Tenor, Soprano, and Baritone
o Saxophone Quartet 1 & 2
o Studio Jazz Ensemble 1 & 2
o UW Wind Ensemble
o Jazz Combos 1-6
o University Symphonic Band, Concert Band
o Training in arranging and writing for
saxophone
and more!
Saxophonists can find outstanding
opportunities to develop their professional careers at the UW School of Music.
The UW saxophone studio is a select group of dedicated musicians who work
together to share ideas and to challenge one another, building their individual
talents as soloists, ensemble players, and leaders.
Saxophone students at UW are trained to
perform in classical, jazz, and modern performance styles. They graduate with
the technique, flexibility, and musical depth to pursue any musical goal of
their choosing. Alumni of the UW saxophone studio are currently performing
throughout the U.S. in jazz groups, rock bands, symphonic and chamber groups,
and as classical recitalists. Many have also built active teaching careers in
public schools, as private studio instructors, as writers/arrangers, as
conductors, and as recording studio engineers.
Degrees offered for saxophonists at the UW
School of Music include the Bachelor of Music (classical performance or jazz
studies), the Bachelor of Arts (weighted toward liberal arts studies), the
Master of Music (weighted toward classical music), and the Doctor of Musical
Arts (weighted toward classical music)
Solo concert literature is strongly
emphasized in the UW sax studio for classical performance majors. It is
included to a lesser degree in the program of study for jazz studies majors as
a solid means of building excellent technical control over all ranges of the
instrument. Students are prepared in traditional French and American concert
repertoire, plus 20th and 21st-century works employing contemporary techniques
such as multiphonics, quarter-tones, and altissimo register notes.
Jazz Saxophonists have opportunities to
build their skills as improvisers both in private instruction with Michael
Brockman, and through a two-year sequence of jazz improvisation classes. Courses
in arranging, composition, conducting, and MIDI techniques are also offered,
and highly recommended, for the musician who wants to open the greatest number
of opportunities in his/her professional life.
Alto, tenor, soprano, and baritone saxophone
are all taught in the studio, and ensemble opportunities are numerous for each.
Students are required to become proficient on both the alto and the tenor, and
should plan to own both instruments before their final year. Students are also
required to become proficient on the clarinet, and flute.
Brockman works at times as a professional
composer and arranger. While these are not considered a traditional part of
saxophone instruction, a substantial amount of time is spent (over the course
of a degree program) introducing students to writing for the saxophone and
other instruments in both jazz and contemporary/modern genres. Many UW
saxophone students have discovered that they have hidden skills in writing
music that can help them achieve their career goals.
AUDITIONS
Admission to a degree program or to private
saxophone instruction in the School of Music is by audition. The number of open slots for new
saxophone students is limited, and competition is traditionally very high to
get into the program. It is recommended that you contact Professor Brockman by
email during the fall term, one full year prior to the term you wish to
begin study at the UW, to inform him of your intent to apply, and to confer
about audition pieces you will play.
All applicants are encouraged to provide
Professor Brockman with a resume (REQUIRED for all graduate applicants) listing
your musical activities, professional accomplishments, recordings, and
significant performances. Be
sure to include any non-saxophone related activities, such compositions you
have written, conducting activities, travels, and any other things you feel
make you an interesting person.
Auditions last less than 15 minutes per
students, and this is not a very long time for our faculty to evaluate all
aspects of a person's playing abilities and musicianship. You are therefore
encouraged to submit to professor Brockman a CD record or 2-3 MP3 files
demonstrating other aspects of your musicianship. You can submit recordings you
have made with special ensembles, pieces you have written, musical genres that
aren't being included in your audition (such as rock or folk), perfomances on
other members of the saxophone family, etc.
AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:
CLASSICAL SAXOPHONE
If you are an auditioning high school
saxophonist, you must prepare the chromatic scale and all 12 major scales and
12 melodic minor scales (extended through the ENTIRE range of your instrument)
plus 3-4 movements selected from a solo sonata or concerto written for
saxophone (with piano accompaniment). Excellent examples of literature
appropriate for undergraduate auditions include the Creston Sonata, the Bernard
Heiden Sonata, the Villa Lobos Fantasia, the Tcherepnine Sonata Sportive, the Maurice Tableaux de Provence, and the piano/sax reductions of the Ibert Concertino
da Camera, the Glazounov Concerto, and the Dubois Concerto. You
may also be asked to sight read some music that tests your ability to read
arpeggios, rhythms and accidentals.
If you are an auditioning for entrance as a
graduate student, you must prepare 2 or more complete sonatas or concertos,
plus a contrasting work showing added versatility. You must also submit a complete repertoire list of all works
performed in concert. Standard
pieces that are played by underclassmen (such as the Ibert, Creston and
Glazounov) can be acceptable for auditions into a graduate performance program,
but it is recommended that you choose pieces that are more challenging and show
advanced training in technique and phrasing, as well as some extended techniques
(such as altissimo, multiphonics, microtones, mixed meters, etc.).
AUDTITION REQUIREMENTS:
JAZZ SAXOPHONE
Applicants to the Jazz Studies degree should
come prepared to perform three contrasting jazz pieces from memory,
demonstrating interpretive and improvisatory skills. You should play the
melody, and then improvise a solo for 3-4 choruses over the chord changes. The
three pieces should be 1) a jazz standard in swing time, 2) a blues, and 3) a
ballad. To play these three pieces, you should bring some play-along CDs with
you. We will provide a stereo
sound system with CD player. Of course, if you want to bring along a rhythm
section to accompany you in place of the CDs, that is an option, and it may
help you to play a better audition.
Excellent jazz pieces for auditions include Just Friends, Oleo,
On Green Dolphin Street, I
Can't Get Started, Have You Met
Miss Jones, Body and Soul, Lover Man, Cherokee, All the
Things You Are, and Invitation.
Alternatively, you can play two jazz tunes
plus a transcription of an improvised jazz solo recorded by a major artist.
Bring in a transcription that you have done of a solo that was recorded by a
jazz master, providing us 4-5 copies of the written solo, and then play the
solo note-for-note along with the original CD recording. Transcription must be done by the
individual student applicant, and not taken from a commercially published book
or other source.
Be prepared to sight read some music that we
will choose, and be prepared to play your chromatic scale and all 12 major
scales and 12 melodic minor scales (extended through the ENTIRE range of your
instrument).
Graduate Students: The UW jazz studies degree program is only an undergraduate
program. However, you may include
some jazz studies in saxophone as part of your work at the UW, with prior
approval from Professor Brockman.
You should supply a recorded example of your jazz playing in the fall
prior to your UW entrance audition, and then confer with Professor Brockman
about whether to include jazz as a part of your graduate entrance audition.
FOR THOSE WHO PLAY BOTH CLASSICAL AND
JAZZ
Undergraduate applicants can audition on
saxophone for entrance into both the jazz studies program and the classical
performance program. This requires two separate auditions. If you gain admission into both
programs, then you will have to choose one as your main area of focus for your
degree. You cannot officially
remain a candidate in both degree programs (however, you can switch between
them in a later year, if you change your mind). Regardless of which degree you
are earning, you are always free to audition for, and participate in any
ensemble within the school, and you are encouraged to study both jazz and
classical techniques on the saxophone throughout your degree program.
Admission into either the jazz or classical
saxophone program is highly competitive--neither one is easier to get into than
the other. So, you should
initially focus your attention on playing your very best audition in the style
that represents your best skills.
Only if you feel you are equally accomplished in both jazz and classical
should you sign up to audition for both areas.
A recommended path for the person with
skills in both areas is to play a live audition in your STRONGEST style, and
then leave a recording with Professor Brockman showing your skills in the other
area. This may give you the
advantage of having your broader skills considered in your admissions
evaluation.
ADVICE FOR APPLICANTS IN MUSIC ED
(Bachelor Degree Level)
If you are a saxophonist and want to pursue
a Bachelor of Music Education, or any of the other non-performance degrees at
the UW School of Music, then your entrance audition will normally be in the
area of classical saxophone.
If your strongest skills are in jazz music,
you should play two separate auditions: one for jazz and one for classical. The
reason for this is that there are an equal number the spots for jazz saxophone
students and classical saxophone students, but the Jazz Studies Division tries
only to admit students who will be Jazz Studies Majors (that is, students
pursuing an actual jazz studies degree). In the classical woodwinds division,
they admit a student for any of the degree programs (performance, music ed,
ethnomusicolgy, composition) based on how well the student auditions. However,
you must have advanced skills in classical saxophone in order to compete for
one of those spots.
SCHOLARSHIPS
School of Music Scholarship auditions
take place each January at the UW School of Music. Both classical and jazz
saxophonists have received excellent awards of scholarship assistance in recent
years. Awards are made on the basis of talent, with consideration given to the
current personnel needs of the UW Wind Ensemble and Studio Jazz Ensemble. Instrumental music scholarships are awarded based on the
quality of the audition you play at the January/February auditions here on the
UW campus, and most students get under $1000 per year, but some get much
more.
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS
The UW does not
currently have any graduate teaching assistantships in the applied instrumental
program.
OUT-OF-STATE TUITION WAIVERS
Waivers of out-of-state
tuition are possible, but they are not easy to get--and the normally go to
people who play exceptional auditions and have qualified for large scholarships
of around $3000 as well. You may well be among those people, but you must
play a very high level audition.
ABOUT MICHAEL BROCKMAN
Michael Brockman is an active classical
recitalist and professional jazz performer in Seattle. He holds a Master of
Music with Distinction from the New England Conservatory, and received
undergraduate training at the Berklee College of Music (jazz studies), the
Musikhochschule Koln in Cologne, West Germany (composition), and Lewis and
Clark College in Portland, Oregon (classical studies). He has premiered large
solo works by Walter Hartley, James Beale, Richard Karpen, Gilbert Seeley and
Susan Calkins, and presented West coast premieres of works by Gunther Schuller
and David Maslanka.
Brockman is the co-director of the
award-winning Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (named "Northwest Best
Acoustic Jazz Ensemble" in 2005) which is widely acclaimed for its
authentic performances of rare and often unpublished works by jazz music's
greatest composers, including the annual performance of the Duke Ellington
Sacred Concerts (now in its 17th year). Brockman can be heard as a soloist and
section leader on the SRJO compact discs "SRJO Live" released in June
2002 (Origin Records 82399), and "Sacred Music of Duke Ellington"
released in December 2005 (Origin Records 82456). Much of the repertoire for this ensemble must be transcribed
by Michael Brockman from original recordings. Brockman has specialized in the
study of early jazz works for over 20 years.
Brockman appears regularly in Seattle with
the Clarence Acox Sextet, which received awards for the 1992 Best Acoustic Jazz
Group, and the 1992 Best NW Recording from Seattle's Earshot Jazz Magazine. He
has also performed as saxophone soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and
the Pacific Northwest Ballet. He is featured on two Clarence Acox Sextet CDs,
titled Joanna's Dance (1991) and Indigenous Groove (1992), on the RSA Big Band
CD released in 1991 titled The Suspect, and the Centaur recording Composers in
the Computer Age. He is also heard as the soprano saxophone soloist on the MGM
film "Zeus and Amanda."
Brockman has recently been a featured
soloist in the Dubrovnik Music Festival, the Reims Music festival, the Seattle
Creative Music Series, the Stanford Computer Music Festival, the Bellevue Jazz
Festival, the Gig Harbor Jazz Festival, and the 10th World Saxophone Congress.
In 1998 he made a four nation tour of Europe as soprano saxophone soloist with
the internationally acclaimed Oregon Repertory Singers.
While on the East coast, he was a member of
the George Russell Big Band, and the renowned Medium Rare Big Band of Boston.
He has performed with the Bolshoi Ballet, and with jazz greats Clark Terry,
James Moody, Quincy Jones, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Arturo
Sandoval, pianist/singer Harry Connick, Jr., jazz pianist Jaki Byard, singers
Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, John Hendricks, Ernestine Anderson, Diane Shuur,
the Temptations, the Four Tops, and the O'Jays.
Brockman the faculty member at the
University of Washington in 1987. He instructs concert and jazz saxophone, jazz
arranging and composition, improvisation, and ensembles. He studied saxophone
and clarinet performance with Joseph Allard in Boston and New York, with Joe
Viola and George Garzone at Berklee, and Jerry D. Luedders in Oregon. From
1982-87 he was Director of Jazz Studies/Professor of Saxophone at Shenandoah
University in Virginia. Mr. Brockman is a soloist/clinician for the Selmer
Company.
PUBLISHED INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES
Several lengthy interviews and articles
about Michael Brockman have been published in recent years:
-Saxophone Journal (Sept 1999) Cover Story
"Michael Brockman" (by Dr. Boyd Phelps)
-Jazz Steps Magazine (Sept 2002)
"Michael Brockman: SRJO Director a Study in Saxophonesque" Part I (by
Norm Bobrow)
-Jazz Steps Magazine (Oct 2002)
"Michael Brockman: SRJO Director a Study in Saxophonesque" Part II
(by Norm Bobrow)
-Earshot Magainzine (Sept. 2002) "The
Great American Orchestra" (by Todd Matthews)
-"An Interview with Seattle Repertory
Jazz Orchestra's Michael Brockman" (by Todd Matthews, Sept 2002) available
online at http://www.wahmee.com/brockman.html
INFORMATION/APPLICATION
For further information about admission and
scholarships, or to obtain application materials, contact:
Jenni Cole
Admissions & Outreach Coordinator
jcole2@u.washington.edu
206-685-9872
-or-
Office of Undergraduate and Graduate
Advising
School of Music Box 353450
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Telephone (206) 543-1239
GUEST APPEARANCES
The UW School of Music is happy to make
available Mr. Brockman's services to your school as a clinician, adjudicator,
and performer:
- Saxophone Soloist with Concert Band
- Saxophone Soloist with Orchestra
- Jazz Soloist with Jazz Ensemble
- Michael Brockman/Lisa Bergman Duo in
concert
- Saxophone Master Classes and Clinics (to
discuss reeds, equipment, practice techniques, proper playing)
- Jazz Improvisation Clinics (a hands-on
approach)
- Jazz Ensemble Rehearsal/Clinics (to help
your band get ready for a special concert, or gear-up for a festival)
Repertoire
- with concert band: Maslanka Concerto; Dahl
Concerto; Husa Concerto; Benson Aeolian Song; Jager Concerto
- with orchestra: Dubois Concerto; Ibert
Concertino da Camera (for chamber orchestra or larger); Glazounov Concerto;
Villa Lobos Fantasia (for strings, 3 horns and percussion)
- with jazz ensemble: select from 15 pieces
collected to feature Brockman (including Lush Life, Mellotone, New Blues, and
others) or any piece currently being prepared by your big band or combo.
To arrange a clinic or performance in
your school, call Michael Brockman directly at the UW School of Music:
Tel: 206-616-6209
Fax: 206-685-9499
email: brockman@u.washington.edu