Master in Jazz and stage music

Jazz and Stage Music is a master's program offered in English at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland. The program runs two years and carries a yearly tuition of 5,500 EUR. The Academy was founded in 1929 and occupies a neo-Gothic building where it hosts concerts, master classes, workshops, competitions, and conferences drawing both national and international participants alongside its teaching activities. The school is organized into two departments: Composition, Interpretation, Education and Jazz, and Vocal-Instrumental. Across these departments, students can study composition and music theory, conducting, artistic education in music, jazz, instrumental performance, vocal performance, and church music. English-language paid studies have been offered at the Academy since the 2011/2012 academic year. The faculty includes pianists Andrzej Jasiński, Józef Stompel, and Wojciech Świtała; harpist Helga Storck; guitarist Alina Gruszka; organist Julian Gembalski; harpsichordist Marek Toporowski; accordionist Joachim Pichura; and cellist Paweł Głombik, along with musicians from the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice who also teach at the school. Jazz performance study typically combines instrumental technique, improvisation, ensemble playing, arranging, and stagecraft, preparing graduates for careers as performing musicians, session players, composers, arrangers, and educators. Students in a program like this usually rehearse and perform regularly, building the repertoire and stage experience that professional jazz work demands, while also studying music theory and history to ground their playing. A conservatory setting such as this one gives students access to experienced performing faculty and a schedule built around concerts and public performance, central to training musicians for careers in jazz and stage music.