[Trombone-l] Students protest end of NU jazz major

[Bill Dinwiddie]

I could have told you this in 1965, when the NU School of Music 
administration cancelled the Jazz Workshop's U.S. State Department- 
sponsored 3 month tour of South America. They never supported jazz and the 
classical faculty was always jealous of the successes of the jazz program. 
Now the word is out and no one wants the job. Who could blame them!

Northwestern University: the "Big Ten" school with the little mind.

Bill Dinwiddie
billdin at comcast.net





Students protest end of NU jazz major

By Howard Reich
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 17, 2007
Students at Northwestern University in Evanston handed out fliers on 
Wednesday and otherwise protested the School of Music's decision to 
discontinue its jazz studies degree program, created in 1999.

Current jazz studies majors will get to complete their degrees, and the 
school plans to enhance its jazz offerings for all music students, Music 
Dean Toni-Marie Montgomery said.

The decision by the faculty and dean to end the jazz studies major came 
after the school had spent two years fruitlessly searching for a new head 
for the jazz studies department, Montgomery said.

"It pains me that this is the outcome after two years of working with 
faculty, working diligently to strengthen the program," she said.

"However, in talking with experts in jazz throughout the country, their 
comments to me were that the School of Music was known internationally, but 
we are not known in a positive way for jazz," added Montgomery, whose school 
indeed has emphasized classical music above all else.

Music senior Mike Lebrun criticized the administration's decision.

"Cutting the jazz major is a huge mistake," said Lebrun, who helped organize 
the protests and created an advocacy Web site at friendsofnujazz.com.

"This has been a very frustrating experience for students at NU," Lebrun 
said. "The biggest issue has been dealing with the classical faculty and 
their lack of willingness to establish jazz as a legitimate art form here."

Meanwhile, Northwestern University President Henry Bienen told the Daily 
Northwestern newspaper last month that a new building for the School of 
Music, long under consideration, is "going to get built, because it's an 
important thing to do for the university."

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hreich at tribune.com


Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune