Peter Stoltzman

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Peter Stoltzman

Piano – Jazz Camp Week 1, Jazz Camp Package, Giant Steps Package


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ianist Peter Stoltzman first taught at Stanford Jazz Workshop in 1996 while he was working on a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Performance at the Berklee College of Music. Recent highlights include touring Japan with bassist Eddie Gomez, drummer Steve Gadd, and marimba virtuoso Mika Yoshida. Peter has performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and other world-class venues around the globe with artists including Alex Acuna, Kazumi Watanabe, and Yosvany Terry. He performs regularly with his own trio and other groups all over the world. He was the 2010 winner of the Philips Jazz Piano Competition.

In addition to his performing career, Peter is a committed educator, dedicated to promoting creativity through jazz and improving jazz pedagogy. He pursued doctoral work at the University of Texas that applied cognitive science research techniques to study the mysteries of spontaneous creativity. He has led Young Audiences programs with his world music group, Samadhi. He has also developed education programs for young musicians, led masterclasses around the world, and directed the music component of the Leadership Enrichment Through the Arts program in Austin.

Peter holds a Masters degree in Jazz Composition with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance, along with a Concentration in Music in Education from New England Conservatory. He was a professor at the Univeristy of Illinios at Chicago and is currently the head of the piano program at the University of Colorado at Denver.

www.peterjohnstoltzman.com


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Kristen Strom

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Kristen Strom

Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone – Giant Steps Day Camp, Jazz Camp 1, Jazz Camp 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package, Giant Steps Package


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risten Strom has been an integral part of the Stanford Jazz Workshop family for nearly 20 years. As part of the Giant Steps Big Band and Miles Ahead Big Band programs, she’s been an extremely popular and effective director. She’s led her own ensembles and performed as a side player for many Stanford Jazz Festival concerts. She co-directs the Giant Steps Day Camp summer program for middle schoolers, as well as the Mentor Fellowship program. Kristen is also a core member of the Jazz Camp faculty, teaching saxophone, clarinet, and flute, and directing combos.  

In a recent article in the San Jose Mercury, noted Bay Area jazz writer Andy Gilbert said of Kristen’s music and playing, “With a tone that’s lithe and lustrous, Kristen Strom embodies her musical philosophy in every note she plays.”

Also a fantastic vocalist, Kristen has been a mainstay on the Bay Area music scene for nearly two decades, acclaimed for beautifully rendered melodies, exceptional tonality, and accomplished musicianship. She has played alongside many well-known artists, including Manhattan Transfer, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Johnny Mathis, Jimmy Heath, Steve Turre, Barbara Morrison, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Tammy L. Hall, Maria Muldaur and Ruthie Foster.

Bay Area performance venues for the Kristen Strom ensembles include the Monterey Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Center, Stanford Jazz Festival, Healdsburg Jazz, and several appearances at San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest. She is in the touring cast of Blues is a Woman, a show celebrating the history of women in the blues. She also performs in a celebrated duo with husband, guitarist Scott Sorkin.

In addition to her albums, Intention, Sojourn and Moving Day: The Music of John Shifflett, she has recorded more than 50 albums with various jazz and pop artists, including the international jazz group Crossing Borders, Taj Mahal, Pamela Rose, Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo, Tammy L. Hall, The Jim Norton Collective and poet Paul Zarzyski.

Moving Day: The Music of John Shifflett was included in the Best Jazz Albums of 2018 by the Mercury News.

Her touring schedule has included performances across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.

Kristen is committed to music education and is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Santa Clara University, as well as the Stanford Jazz Workshop. She is an endorsing artist and clinician for Selmer saxophones.

www.kristenstrom.com


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Josh Thurston-Milgrom

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Josh Thurston-Milgrom

Acoustic/Electric Bass – Jazz Camp Week 2, Jazz Institute, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package


Joshua Thurston-Milgrom has been playing jazz bass with the Stanford Jazz Workshop since he was a teenager at Jazz Camp, playing in combos with Dayna Stephens, Taylor Eigsti, Ambrose Akinmusire, and other young musicians who have since made a mark on the jazz world. On the faculty now for 20 years,  Josh has influenced a whole generation of young bassists at SJW. Josh has shared the stage with many of the world’s top jazz artists, including Joshua Redman, Charles McPherson, Wycliffe Gordon, and countless others. 

Josh recently released his first recording as a leader, Thirsty Pilgrim Songs, on Slow and Steady records. 


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Valerie Troutt

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Valerie Troutt

Vocals – Jazz Camp Week 1, Jazz Camp Week 2, Advanced Package, Jazz Camp Package, Giant Steps Package, Jazz Camp Vocal Program


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ith wide-ranging influences such as Bjork, Dianne Reeves, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, Walter Hawkins and Cassandra Wilson, jazz and gospel vocalist Valerie Troutt is a tremendously creative artist, and SJW is very happy to welcome her to the Jazz Camp faculty. Bay-area born and bred, there’s a light in this unapologetically unconventional vocalist for whom art and activism are intertwined. Within this spiritual and social justice-driven performer is a lifelong hunger for craft, for connection, for cultural narratives and an indefatigable thirst to serve as an agape griot to a waiting and hurting people.

In the East Bay, Troutt has established herself as more than an artist, but as a leader in the area’s famed creative community. Partnering on Bay area projects with East Bay Performance Art Center, the Museum of African Diaspora, Queer Cultural Center., and the Embodiment Project (where Troutt is Music Director).  The latter project served as the genesis for MoonCandy live house music ensemble, a band Valerie Troutt composes for while still teaching full time in Oakland at Urban Montessori.

Troutt’s latest project, The Sound of Peace, borrows from the past and gives to the future. Half jazz standards innovatively re-imagined for contemporary audiences and half truth‐telling originals penned by the lady herself, the Troutt-produced project is an overture to her fans for not only social change but also their own self‐acceptance.   Currently, Troutt is working on a new album titled “The Oakland Girl Project” featuring Jazz Sawyer, John Ormod, Emanuel Ruffler, and Maya Kronfeld.  The full album is slated to come out 2020.

Troutt has performed at famed venues in New York and the Bay Area, including SOBs, The Knitting Factory, Yoshi’s Jazz Club, Laurel Street Fair, The Mint L.A., CODA Jazz Supper Club, and the Art ‘n’ Soul Festival. She has shared stages and collaborated with major recording artists like Les Nubians, Jennifer Johns, Maria Muldaur, Kimiko Joy, and Sister Monica Parker. She has recorded with modern composers like Gregory Del Piero, Emanuel Ruffler, Howard Wiley and Jaz Sawyer. For nearly two years, she also served as a principle singer in La Pena – Ayer, Hoy y Pa’Lante, an original suite of music by three-time Grammy nominee Wayne Wallace, with libretto by Aya de Leon. She has also performed extensively with Linda Tillery’s Cultural Heritage Choir.


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Matt Wilson

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Matt Wilson

Drums – Jazz Institute, Advanced Package


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ew musicians embody the spontaneous energy of jazz quite like Matt Wilson, who was recently named 2018 Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. The New York-based drummer combines buoyant zeal, idiosyncratic style, infectious humor, joyous swing and an indomitable spirit of surprise, making him one of the most in-demand players and educators on the modern jazz scene. He leads many distinctive ensembles: the Matt Wilson Quartet, Arts & Crafts, Honey and Salt, Big Happy Family, Topsy Turvy and the Christmas Tree-O.

With his two most recent recordings, Wilson has achieved the very rare feat of receiving two consecutive 5-star (masterpiece) reviews from DownBeat magazine. His latest album, Honey and Salt (Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg), was chosen as the 2018 Record of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and also received 5-star reviews from three separate All About Jazz writers, Irish Times and Diariofolk. The recording, his thirteenth as a leader for Palmetto, has also been recognized on over thirty “Best Of “ lists, including The Top Ten Recordings of 2017 lists by NPR, JazzTimes, Boston Globe, DownBeat, Jazziz, Cadence, Irish Times, Just Jazz, Stem Tempest and numerous other publications.

Wilson’s impressive discography numbers more than 400 CDs, including releases by his co-led trios Sifter and Trio M. He has performed with such luminaries as Dewey Redman, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Chris Potter, Paul Bley, Elvis Costello, Lee Konitz, Geri Allen, Andrew Hill, Jane Ira Bloom, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Marshall Allen, Joanne Brackeen, John Zorn, Cecil McBee, Paquito D’ Rivera, Ray Anderson, Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, Candido, Buster Williams, Sheila Jordan, Gary Peacock, Kenny Barron, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Hubert Laws, George Cables, Denny Zeitlin and many others.

Matt has been featured on the covers of DownBeat, JazzTimes, Modern Drummer, JazzEd, JazzTimes Educational Supplement, Jazziz, The New York City Jazz Record, Hot House and Coda magazines. He was voted Drummer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2003 and 2011 and he topped the “Rising Star Drummer” category in DownBeat’s Critics Poll for five consecutive years, among numerous other accolades, including a 2011 Grammy nomination. In demand as an educator, he’s led workshops and master classes around the world and is on faculty at the New School, SUNY Purchase, San Francisco Conservatory, Sarah Lawrence College and Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Holland.


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Patrick Wolff

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Patrick Wolff

Clarinet, Saxophone – Jazz Institute, Advanced Package


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axophonist Patrick Wolff has been teaching at SJW for 12 years. Originally from New York and currently residing in San Francisco, Patrick is a highly-regarded saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He attended New York University where he studied with Ralph Lalama, George Garzone, Frank Foster, Ron McClure, and Frank Kimbrough. Patrick has toured heavily with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, worked with Shane Endsley, Josh Roseman, Judi Silvano, and Ron McClure. He has performed with many of the world’s greatest musicians including Louis Hayes, Tootie Heath, Peter Bernstein, Larry Grenadier, Matt Wilson, Drew Gress, Marcus Gilmore, Gregory Hutchinson, Joe Lovano, George Cables, Marcus Belgrave, Dayna Stephens, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, and Ray Drummond. As a bandleader he led a trio in NYC with bassist Chris Van Voorst Van Beest and drummer Yujiro Nakamura. An artistic success, this group performed regularly at clubs like Zebulon, the Bar Next Door, and Louis 649, and were active in MTA’s Music Under New York program. They released an album entitled Petals.

Since relocating to the Bay Area, Patrick has worked with many of the most exciting local bandleaders, including Graham Connah, Marcus Shelby, and Andrew Speight. He currently leads a trio with bassist John Wiitala and drummer Hamir Atwal, as well as a sextet with the same trio, plus trumpeter Erik Jekabsen, pianist Adam Shulman, and saxophonist Andrew Speight. Both groups perform original music and can be seen in regular performance. The trio and sextet have recorded two records, Your Obedient Ghost and Noose of Light.

Wolff’s experiences as a sideman reach far beyond the jazz world. His first national tour was with punk band/comic troupe The Loose Nuts, and his longest-running musical association was with Afro-beat/highlife juggernaut Asiko. He spent a year as a member of the seminal avant-garde compositional rock group Kayo Dot, and has played with Nigerian reggae star Majek Fashek, Fuji music legend Adewale Ayuba, and indie rock giants Calexico.


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Dave Yamasaki

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Dave Yamasaki

Guitar – Jazz Camp Week 1, Jazz Camp Package, Giant Steps Package


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avid Yamasaki studied ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, Seattle, and guitar at Berklee College of Music, Boston, before receiving a BA and MA from California State University, Hayward. He has recorded with Tito Puente, Sheila E., the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Deems, and Nikita Germaine, and has performed in music videos and film including Bill Cosby’s Leonard, Part Six. Additional performances include Lou Rawls, Louie Bellson, Diane Schuur, Eddie Fisher, Faye Carol, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Forty Niner Band, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, Wayne Wallace and Rhythm and Rhyme, and Fred Berry as well as accompaniment for Frederica Von Stade. He has written scores for two PBS productions and charts for pianist Ramsey Lewis. His teaching experience includes Stanford Jazz Workshop, Jazz Camp West, and San Quentin Prison as well as his current position at the Maryknoll School in Honolulu.


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Giant Steps Package

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When we picked our son up, he said ‘I was among giants’ and was very excited by the professional level of the musicians he
met during the week.
~ Jazz Camp parent

For middle school students


Prerequisite: 12 months classroom or private instruction


July 8 – 12 and July 14 – 19, 2024

Stanford University Campus
Housing and meal plan option available for the July 14 – 19 portion. No housing available for July 8 – 12 portion.


Program Highlights

  • Includes Giant Steps Day Camp and one week of Jazz Camp
  • For instrumentalists and vocalists

Program Focus

  • Big band and small combo ensembles
  • Jazz improvisation
  • One private lesson
  • Instrumental and vocal masterclasses
  • Jazz theory and musicianship
  • Free admission to Stanford Jazz Festival concerts
  • Fun outdoor sports and social activities
  • Showcase performances on Friday, July 12 and on Friday, July 21
  • Family dinner on Friday, July 19

TUITION: $2,445

HOUSING AND MEALS
FOR JULY 16 – 21: $995


Sign up now!

Giant Steps Package


Designed for middle school musicians who want a more immersive experience, the Giant Steps Package includes two great weeks of jazz immersion: Giant Steps Day Camp and one week of Jazz Camp. Giant Steps Day Camp offers a fun introduction to jazz and improvisation for middle school vocalists and instrumentalists. Jazz Camp gives young jazz musicians a chance to develop their new skills through combo rehearsal and performance, as well as daily master classes, musicianship classes, and jazz theory classes.

Each student engages in a variety of activities that emphasize the fundamentals of good musicianship while introducing concepts of jazz phrasing, articulation, vocabulary, and improvisation. Daily master classes give students instruction on their own instruments or voice type, focusing on fundamentals such as good tone production and technique. 

Students exercise their creativity through soloing and improvising in small and large ensembles. Dedicated classes for vocalists and string instrumentalists introduce those students to the world of jazz and provide repertoire that’s unique and tailored to their instrument or voice.



A typical day at Giant Steps Day Camp

9:00 a.m. All-camp meeting
9:30 a.m. Masterclass and music theory
10:15 a.m. Ensemble period 1, either small or large band
11:45 a.m. Lunch and outdoor activities
12:45 p.m. Faculty band concert
1:30 p.m. Ensemble period 2, either small or large band
3:00 p.m. End of the day; late pick up activities are available as an option


A typical day at Jazz Camp

9:00 a.m. All-camp morning meeting

9:20 a.m. Theory or musicianship

10:30 a.m. Instrument-specific of vocal masterclasses

12:00 Lunch; noon concerts by faculty on Wednesday and Friday

1:00 p.m. Theory or musicianship

2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Combo rehearsals and afternoon classes

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Dorm resident daily check-in

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Jam session (optional)

5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Counselor-led sports (optional)

5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Private lessons, Stanford Jazz Festival concerts, dorm dance, s’mores cooking, or other counselor-led activities

10:00 p.m. CoHo Jam for faculty artists (optional)


Faculty



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