Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Student and Faculty Chosen to Represent Alamo Colleges at Prestigious Jazz Meeting in Estonia


Good news! San Antonio College music student Marco Salinas and his applied jazz/improvisation teacher and adjunct instructor at the Palmetto Center for the Arts at Northwest Vista College, Joe Caploe, have been accepted into the prestigious 2018 Jazz Meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz, July 2-7! This year's global jazz meeting is to be hosted by the Viljandi Culture Academy in Estonia.
Marco Salinas

"It is a great honour for me to welcome all of you to Viljandi, Estonia, for the 2018 IASJ Jazz Meeting.... We hope the meeting in Viljandi will lead to new avenues for dialogue and new collaborations across borders and we wish that the meetings and concerts are about celebrating jazz and the arts that is enriching our lives, our country and our society. Prepare yourself to be challenged, excited and inspired. See you in Viljandi! - Iñaki Sandoval, Director Viljandi Culture Academy 
 
Liam Dixon (5th from right), Caploe (right), 2017 Jazz Meeting, Siena

Launched in 2010, the A-JAM Alamo Colleges Jazz Mentorship Program creates opportunities for San Antonio students to succeed both locally and internationally in the intercultural collaborative field of jazz. To understand our mission, take five minutes to watch the trailer for a documentary on the unique international jazz meeting we prepare our students to attend. This is the grand prize for members of the A-JAM program, and it is--as founding member Ronan Guilfoyle stated--"a pearl beyond price." In the words of A-JAM student Odie Wallace (IASJ Denmark 2013), the experience is "life changing." 
 
As the filmmaker says, it's "a documentary film about jazz education that's not about the music. It's a film about collaboration, creativity, and community; a film about sharing ideas across cultures, a film about the legacy that passes from generation to generation; a respect for the elders, and the hope that the younger generation will take that knowledge and pass it forward. David Liebman, who won the NEA Jazz Masters award in 2011, founded the IASJ [International Association of Schools of Jazz] about twenty years ago with the sole purpose of creating a forum for cross-cultural communication." - Leon Segal, filmmaker and psychologist. Read more about the program... 
Francis Stromboe (left), 2016 Jazz Meeting, Boston

Please join us in congratulating Marco and Joe and wishing them well on their jazz journey!