Our partnerships with venues and institutions in New York City and abroad give students opportunities to showcase their talents and forge new connections with emerging and established artists both domestically and internationally.
Amsterdam Conservatory of Music
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and Amsterdam Conservatory of Music are partner institutions, allowing students to learn on the European jazz music scene and participate in a vibrant international exchange program.
Barry Harris Institute of Jazz
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music partners with the Barry Harris Institute of Jazz, continuing the late Barry Harris' harmony, vocal, and improvisation workshops. The Barry Harris Workshops are held at The New School and aim to foster community around Harris’ unique pedagogical insights.
Bern International Jazz Festival
Since 2009, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music has enjoyed an exciting collaboration with the Bern International Jazz Festival. Every spring, New School student ensembles travel to Switzerland to perform at the festival. This is a wonderful learning experience for young musicians, allowing them to travel abroad, perform in front of enthusiastic and sophisticated audiences, and interact with world-renowned artists. The program has become a cornerstone of the global learning experience, often marking the students' first international performance.
The Center for Jazz Studies
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music's 2009 agreement with the Conservatory of Tel Aviv carries forward a deep and historical connection with Israeli jazz. Students at CJS are provided with two years of the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music curriculum taught at the Israel Conservatory partner, with students transferring to complete the BFA in New York. Through the program, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music enrolls the finest jazz musicians from Israel, supporting a movement recognized worldwide as a new artistic vanguard in jazz.
Charles Mingus Institute
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music proudly partners with the Charles Mingus Institute for the annual Charles Mingus Festival and High School Competition. This event features workshops and master classes at The New School, led by Mingus repertory musicians and educators, along with a day of competitive performances and special concerts by the Mingus Big Band. Additionally, a $25,000 tuition scholarship is awarded in Charles Mingus' name to a graduating high school senior participating in the festival on the basis of their competition performance and acceptance into the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.
City Parks Foundation
City Parks Foundation is dedicated to invigorating and transforming parks into dynamic, vibrant centers of urban life through sports, the arts, community building, and educational programs for all New Yorkers. The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music partners with the foundation on several concerts, most notably the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which brings together the finest musicians who reflect Charlie Parker's musical individuality and genius as a way to promote appreciation of this influential world-renowned artist.
Clinton Global Initiative
In 2024, The New School committed itself to bolstering the inclusion of women and nonbinary musicians in jazz. To combat the severe underrepresentation of women performers, students, and educators in the jazz arena, this initiative focuses on increasing women’s performance opportunities, establishing and expanding mentorships and internships, and increasing the percentage of women in the school’s jazz faculty with the aim of achieving parity. Through these efforts, The New School strives to increase the visibility and representation of women in this field while investing in skill and leadership development.
Conn-Selmer Division of Education
The Conn-Selmer School Partnership Program offers schools, districts, community arts organizations, colleges, and universities the opportunity to partner with the world’s largest manufacturer of American-made band and orchestra instruments. This program offers institutions access to in-kind grant opportunities, artist support, discounted instruments, events, and professional development.
Eric Dolphy Freedom of Sound Festival
In partnership with Seed Artists, the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music has hosted The Eric Dolphy Freedom of Sound Festival, which celebrates the music of the trailblazing jazz explorer Eric Dolphy (1928–1964). Dolphy mastered multiple instruments (alto sax, flute, bass clarinet), led bold ensembles, challenged harmonic conventions, and proved a crucial collaborator to Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.
GRAMMY Museum®
Established in 2008, the GRAMMY Museum® is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating greater understanding of the history and significance of music through exhibitions, education, grants, preservation initiatives, and public programming.
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music is proud to be a GRAMMY Museum® University Affiliate, benefiting from access to the rich musical history and archives of the GRAMMY Museum for educational purposes, curriculum resources, research programs, internship opportunities, professional development seminars, collaborative marketing and promotions, and project-based learning.
International Association of Schools of Jazz
The International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) (Dean Keller Coker, chairman) is a worldwide jazz education organization with member schools from all continents. Annual faculty and student participation in IASJ meetings has brought the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music tremendous benefits in the form of increased visibility, access to global thinking and ideas, expanded student recruitment, faculty and student professional and personal development, and a broader international network of contacts.
Union Square Partnership
New York City Parks teams up with the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music every summer to present weekly concerts at "Summer in the Square" in Union Square Park. This is a paid opportunity through which students organize, prepare for, and lead professional public concerts for a variety of audiences.
Walker Hotels
Students from the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music perform six nights a week for guests in the lobbies of the luxury boutique Walker Hotels in New York City's Greenwich Village and Tribeca neighborhoods.
Women in Jazz Organization
Women in Jazz Organization is an arts nonprofit that includes more than 500 professional jazz musicians and composers who identify as women or gender nonbinary. The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music is proud to partner with the Women in Jazz Organization on its International Women’s Day Concert and Jam Session.
Yamaha
The College of Performing Arts is one of ten colleges and universities named to the Yamaha Institution of Excellence program for their extraordinary commitment to innovation in the study of music. The program is designed to respond to each honoree’s unique mission and provides benefits for the institution, its faculty, and its students.