Vocal Jazz Diversity Webinar – Session Description
Workshop Presenter: Terrence Taylor – COR Perspectives
Friday, August 7th, 2020
Pacific Time: 10:00 AM // Eastern Time: 1:00 PM
Session will be two hours in length.
Terrence is both trained in Diversity & Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment and is a professional musician having studied Vocal Jazz at many levels, including winning two Downbeat awards for Outstanding Soloist in multiple styles.
Session Description:
The age-old saying says “we are a melting pot.” Yet consider the beauty of striving for our spaces to be mosaics, each part with its unique identity contributing to the greater whole. This hinges on encouraging diversity in our educational institutions.
For vocal jazz directors, this mosaic takes on different forms and considerations:
- Are we helping students honor an art form which was created primarily by Black musicians, but has expanded to a worldwide genre that crosses cultures?
- Are we helping students study an art form which was created primarily as an aural experience that has morphed to include a heavy emphasis on reading?
- Are we teaching an art form that has transitioned from popular nightclub music to being reliant on academic study?
- Are we breaking stereotypes of musical backgrounds attached to our students (for example, men are better scatters, all Black people are able to riff, etc)?
In a discussion led by COR Perspectives, we will delve into the topic of diversity in the vocal jazz classroom: exploring what it is, barriers and traps, terminology, and steps we can take to promote diversity in our classrooms, performances, and recordings.
See Terrence Taylor Bio
Registration fees will also benefit the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation — ellafitzgerald.com/foundation
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