Jazz
Studying jazz at KMH originates in the traditional jazz tonality but also includes pop/rock/soul, latin, free improvisation and singer/songwriter.
Our newly built campus gives you, as a student, access to modern practice rooms, studios and concert halls. In addition, the teaching staff at KMH are professional musicians and represent the top of Swedish and international jazz scene.
Programmes
The content of the three-year Bachelor’s Programme in Jazz aims at developing in-depth skills on your instrument in combination with independent artistic creation in improvisation, composition and music production.
The programme gives you a broad professional basis for work as a musician, composer/songwriter, producer, arranger, own entrepreneur, theatre and studio musician in various genres such as jazz, pop/rock, latin, free improvisation, etc.
The master’s programme in Jazz has two orientations – performance in jazz and Nordic performance master in jazz (Nomazz). KMH offers Nomazz together with The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus/Alborg, Denmark and Sibelius Academy (SibA) in Helsinki, Finland.
You can also study jazz in the Teacher education programmes.
Teachers in jazz
The teaching staff at KMH are professional musicians and represent the top of the Swedish and international jazz scenes. In addition, many outstanding guest teachers are regularly tutoring.
Concerts and festivals
The students regularly appear at concerts at KMH, for example, in connection with degree-project examinations, ensemble courses and workshops.
JazzLab is a concert series carried out in collaboration with the Fasching jazz club, where students perform with their ensembles as well as their teachers. This collaboration has been running since 2009.
The jazz department also conducts tours with student groups to other music schools to market and spread information about the institution’s programmes.
New Sound Made
Since 2005, the New Sound Made festival has developed into one of Sweden’s most extensive and content-wise most varied jazz festivals, with approximately 50 concerts over three days. It is produced and performed by students in the department and attracts large crowds of listeners.
Ensembles
KMH Jazz Orchestra
Since the late ’70s, KMH:s big band has been central in the jazz institution. Its artistic directors over the years, Bengt-Arne Wallin, Örjan Fahlström, Patrik Skogh and Sven Berggren, have all contributed to the characteristics of the big band.
Today, the KMH Jazz Orchestra is led by Amanda Sedgwick and performs four to six productions a year and invites guest composers, arrangers and bandleaders. Performing music composed by students within the composition courses is also a vital part of the projects.
International collaborations
In addition to the master’s program (NOMAZZ), which constitutes a collaboration between three Nordic higher education institutions, the jazz institution conducts regular collaboration projects with several European and American jazz educations, for example, Hochschule Luzern and the University of North Texas. The jazz department is part of AEC’s Pop & Jazz platform PJP and the METRIC network (Modernizing European Higher Music Education through Improvisation). Thanks to many international student and teacher exchanges, the institution has an global anchor in higher music education.
Research
At the Department of Jazz Music, artistic development work has been carried out for many years to develop, expand and deepening creative expression and educational methods.
The department currently has a Ph.D. student within KMH’s collaboration with KTH and has hosted several significant research projects, often of a cross-disciplinary nature.