Scholarship Information
As part of its educational mission, the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival provides scholarships for individual private musical instruction. During performance events, judges recommend individual performers to the board of directors. After the conclusion of all regular performance events, the board of directors determines all awards from the pool of recommendations from judges. The festival board of directors reserves final judgment on the number and distribution of all scholarship awards. Several institutions with musical education programs also offer scholarships to Santa Cruz Jazz Festival participants including the University of the Pacific (U.O.P.).
Students have until the end of the calendar year to redeem them.
Each year the Stanford Jazz Workshop offers one tuition scholarship for an excellent Santa Cruz Jazz Festival instrumental musician.
Jazz Camp immerses participants in a fun, focused, and supportive environment. The program offers instrumentalists and vocalists an opportunity play with motivated peers and study with a prestigious faculty of professional musicians and educators.
Our highly-structured curriculum is tailored to the needs and level of each individual student. Improving your improvisation is the goal, and in every class and rehearsal, faculty will help you to hear the sounds of jazz, understand what those sounds are, and play them when you want to. Get ready to play the best jazz of your life.
Families and friends of Jazz Camp students are invited to attend the free Jazz Camp Showcase, held on Friday of each week of Jazz Camp. Tickets for the pre-concert Friends and Family Dinner will be available for purchase online. Families and friends are also invited to purchase tickets to nightly Stanford Jazz Festival concerts.
The LafSMW is offering five 1/2 scholarships to the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival The value of each half scholarship is $375.00.
Since 1998, the week-long Lafayette Summer Music Workshop provides an intimate and inspiring environment for learning and playing jazz. Master classes, improvisation workshops and jazz combos are led by some of the preeminent professional musicians in the field. The workshop is directed by Stanley Middle School music director Bob Athayde and jazz curriculum director Kyle Athayde. Kids – middle school, high school and college age – as well as adults have a blast!
Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop flyer
Steve Gray Scholarships in memory of Steve Newman and David Shoaf
Steve Gray has established two scholarships for students participating in the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival.
One scholarship is in memory of Steve Newman. Steve Newman was a dear friend of Steve Gray, and with a handful of others founded the Jazz Society of Santa Cruz over 20 years ago and it is still going strong.
The second scholarship is in memory of David Shoaf, long time friend and bandmate that we lost too soon.
These scholarships are funded by Steve Gray and the Christmas Saxes on the Mall performances during the holiday season in an effort to keep them in our memories.
Margaret de Faymoreau’s Peter S. Yogis Memorial Scholarship
The Peter S. Yogis Scholarship is a tribute to Peter’s passion for music. It embodies his dedication to spreading kindness and connection through music. This scholarship for private study in the amount of $300 offers financial support to encourage the pursuit of students’ passion for instrumental or vocal jazz music.
Kuumbwa Jazz Camp offers one full tuition scholarship to the Kuumbwa Jazz Camp for one excellent Santa Cruz area student musician participant in the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival.
Education has been fundamental to Kuumbwa’s mission for more than 40 years, and our commitment to sharing with our community the history, theory and artistry of Jazz has grown stronger with each passing year. The professional jazz artists and educators who participate in our programs and talks enlighten players and listeners at every skill and interest level.
But Kuumbwa’s greatest passion remains to educate and inspire young people – the artists and audiences of the future. Kuumbwa’s educational legacy spans a broad spectrum across Santa Cruz County, from those learning to listen, to those learning to play, to the growing ranks of young musicians whose professional careers have taken wing on the tutelage of their dedicated Kuumbwa teachers and mentors.
Kuumbwa remains steadfast in its promise to our entire community and especially our young people: as long as there is a Kuumbwa there will be an open chair, an encouraging ear, and a wealth of opportunities to learn about the thrilling creativity and limitless possibility that is Jazz.
Kuumbwa’s Summer Jazz Camp is an annual day camp for students entering grades 8-12 who are interested in learning jazz, improvisation and jazz appreciation. Students receive both individual and group instruction. The camp focuses on performance, basic improvisation and theory, concepts and phrasing, as well as history and appreciation.
Recipients of the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival Scholarship will receive a 6 week summer course at The Jazzschool.
The California Jazz Conservatory is a music school offering the aspiring professional a comprehensive 4-year degree program culminating in the Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies. The CJC provides a challenging curriculum of performance, jazz theory and improvisation, ear training, composition, arranging, transcription and analysis, and music history courses, taught by professional artists and educators. Coursework also includes music business, music technology and financial planning, thoroughly preparing students for a fulfilling career in the performing arts. In addition to the degree program the California Jazz Conservatory offers a JazzSchool program. The Jazzschool offers ensembles, classes and workshops for instrumentalists and vocalists, focusing on theory, performance, musicianship, improvisation, composition, history, culture, aesthetics, and the music business.