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California Institute of the Arts

MFA: Jazz

The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts

A band performs on stage, at the center, a musician on a saxophone

Collaboration in music

Founded by the late jazz great Charlie Haden, the program focuses on small ensemble performance and improvisation—an environment that fosters your evolution into a versatile performer, improviser, and/or composer. The MFA program offers a challenging and highly experimental curriculum structured around ensemble performance, empowering you to push your artistry to new heights in a creative, collaborative learning environment.

Four people sit on folding chairs in a recording studio playing wind and brass instruments. They’re surrounded by music stands, cords, and equipment.

Jazz students record a CD at Evergreen Studio in Burbank, California, 2024.

Interested in this program?

View our step-by-step application guide to learn more.

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Improvisation and technique

MFA Jazz

The jazz tradition and standards are the point of departure at CalArts, not the destination. Here, you’ll be challenged to perform, record, and produce as often as possible, as you refine and perfect your already-distinctive artistic voice.

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Where the wild things play

A lone performer plays a saxophone, standing in the middle of an empty stage in a futuristic bandshell with a lawn in front and trees and sky in the background.

The composer Morton Feldman used the term “Wild Beast” as a metaphor for the ineffable generative force in art—making it the ideal name for CalArts’ iconic variable-use, indoor-outdoor music pavilion.

As a graduate student in the two-year MFA Jazz program, you’ll work closely with your mentor throughout your residency, as faculty and students rehearse and perform together, both within and beyond the School’s regular calendar of concerts and recitals. Jazz students also participate in a juried competition each year for opportunities to record original work at the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood with some of the best recording engineers in the world. (You can listen to past recordings at the CalArts Jazz CD Archive.) 

Working closely with their mentor, you’ll chart an individualized program of study based on your individual needs, interests, and professional aims. Whether your instrument is jazz bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, brass, reeds, other instruments, or jazz performance, you’ll anchor your individual studies with major lessons, jazz forums, and classes in composition, harmonic improvisation, history, theory, and analysis. Ensemble work is built around performing with both a student jazz ensemble and a faculty jazz ensemble. 

At CalArts, students and faculty alike comprise a community of artists, where students play with faculty as part of an apprenticeship model, as colleagues and collaborators, as you build practical experience as a performer, improviser, composer, and bandleader, at home on the concert stage and in the recording studio.

All graduate programs in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts are designed to equip advanced students with the skill sets you’ll need to stake out a place for your unique vision and reach the highest levels of professional practice. The curriculum is stimulating and challenging, and fosters a collaborative learning environment in which music and sound artists—students and faculty alike—work together to refine and perfect their already distinctive voices, while simultaneously exploring new and inspiring creative territories.

All MFA Jazz candidates are required to pass all degree requirements, including a mid-residence recital and a graduation jury and recital, in order to earn the degree.

Admission requirements

To be considered for the MFA in Jazz, you must complete an application and all program-specific requirements, including a portfolio representative of your work, an artist statement, a brief video introduction, two letters of recommendation, and an interview. The program does not require an audition, but some applicants may be asked to take part in a virtual interview. Before applying, please familiarize yourself with the detailed application requirements and resources available to assist you in this important process. 

View application requirements

Degree requirements

Each CalArts music student designs their course of study in collaboration with a faculty mentor.

View MFA Jazz academic requirements by instrument:

Interdisciplinary opportunities

In addition to CalArts’ naturally collaborative atmosphere, the Institute provides several programs of study that can be pursued concurrently with a student’s chosen metier, such as a concentration in Arts Education or Integrated Media.

MFA concentrations

Courses you might take

What courses would you take as an MFA Jazz student? Browse the courses offered in the School of Music, including opportunities to study jazz, world music, experimental pop, film scoring, improvisation, electronic music, composition, vocal performance, African and Balinese ensembles, and much more.

School of Music courses

Meet the faculty

At CalArts, faculty and students are collaborators, teaching, learning, and working together as members of our community of artists. 

32 years of jazz at CalArts

Every spring since 1990, CalArts music students head to the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood where, working with the best recording engineers in the world, they record live, original compositions by their CalArts peers. The studio time is an invaluable experience, and we get to document some extraordinary and eclectic musical directions. Have a listen.

A grid of the covers of 16 CalArts Jazz album covers.

“It was open season on creativity”

James Brandon Lewis (MFA 10) on his time at CalArts, and the accolades that followed

Alumni story

“To be called a rising star, voted by so many critics, is important,” says the New York-based jazz artist. “I feel like I work hard. The music reached them. But at the same time, the horn has no memory. When I pick it up, it’s on zero again. I accept it. You say ‘thank you’ and keep it moving.”

A moody, black-and-white photo of James Brandon Lewis, wearing glasses, nearly obscured by abstract dark shapes.

James Brandon Lewis. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Gallery

Artist in Residence Week Group Concert

Some of our alumni

More School of Music alumni

School of Music Events

See all School of Music events

  • Performance School of Music

    Join us as the vocalists of CalArts sing some of their recent favorites. What are…

    Sun, Oct 20 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Performance School of Music

    A lovely concert of chamber music performed by students and faculty, followed by a Porto's…

    Tue, Oct 22 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

  • Performance School of Music

    A concert of music by Brandon Becker (MFA 2023) who with his passing earlier this…

    Fri, Oct 18 / 8:00 PM

    CalArts Campus

Want to learn more?

We got you. Our Admissions team is all about providing the information you need to decide if CalArts is right for you. We’re excited to connect with you for a tour of our legendary campus, a virtual info session, or at one of our admissions events across the country or around the world. Take the next step—we’re here to help.