Jazz Studies
Perfect Your Sound
UMKC's Jazz Studies program offers a creative and encouraging environment and is known for helping musicians develop their individual sounds. We believe each artist's journey is unique. We meet you where you are, and we’re excited to help you find and train your creative voice.
Explore Our Programs
Learn more about our undergraduate degree in jazz studies, which rivals any in the nation, or explore our flexible graduate program that's designed to help you develop your voice and fine-tune your skills.
Why Study Jazz at the Conservatory?
Alumni and students are bandleaders, chart-making recording artists, Betty Carter Fellows, graduate assistants, and educators and have won awards at most of the international jazz solo competitions. Our UMKC Jazz Orchestra even made it to number four on the national airplay charts with The Gates BBQ Suite.
Exceptional Faculty and Guest Artists
Study with faculty who are some of the jazz industry's top artists and educators, and benefit from regular masterclasses and concerts featuring some of the best artists in the business — artists like Ron Carter, Dawn Clement, Cyrus Chestnut, Rodney Whitaker, Camille Thurman, John Clayton, Warre Wolf, Melissa Aldana, Walter Smith III and many others.
Abundant Performance Opportunities
Sharpen your skills through a variety of live performance opportunities. Our students are regularly asked to perform throughout the Kansas City area and abroad. Recently, our students have been featured at the JEN conference, performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and toured Japan and Europe, performing in Metz, France, Bern, Switzerland and other cities.
Unique Support for Your Studies
Our programs are supported by UMKC's Jazz Friends, a group founded in 2000, which encourages creative artistry by providing scholarships, financial support for travel to national and international competitions, unique orchestrations for performing ensembles and funding for guest artists and teachers.
Exemplary Resources at Your Fingertips
Jazz studies students have access to a state-of-the-art recording studio on campus, as well as an amazing catalog of the printed and audio history of jazz through the Marr Sound Archives at the Miller Nichols Library on UMKC's main campus. All told, the collection hosts more than 380,000 items in a wide variety of music genres.
Student and Faculty Insights
UMKC Jazz has given me the tools I'll need to be a successful musician. The program instills a strong work ethic, teaches professionalism, and prepares students to work when they graduate.
Andrew Voggesser
Master of Arts in Music, Jazz Concentration
UMKC is a great jazz studies program to study with the highest caliber of professional musicians who give you the practical tools to be successful.
Matt Robertson
Master of Arts in Music, Jazz Concentration
We don’t grow in isolation. We grow in community. Relationships are important. They’re cyclical. Students need access to the jazz community and the people working in it to succeed and fulfill their dreams.
Carl Allen
William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Endowed Professor of Jazz Studies
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