A GLOBAL flavour of jazz will continue at the James Morrison Academy of Music this year with a majority of the 63 students enrolled for 2019 attending Friday’s open day.
Now in its fifth year, students from the United States and South Africa were joined by Indigenous students from Queensland and Western Australia for the welcome celebration ahead of the first semester.
“We love having our students here and we think it is great there are Indigenous students starting to enrol within the academy because there are not many Indigenous jazz musicians, they tend to gravitate towards rhythm and blues,” James Morrison said.
American-raised student Matt Harkins, who found the academy by chance, said the staff and facility was what made the James Morrison Academy of Music worthwhile.
“They really make sure musicians are learning what they need in order to become the musicians they want to be in the future,” Mr Harkins said.
“The faculty are just full of knowledge and everything I want to know they can help with.”
The saxophone player is now entering his third year at the academy after finding the academy on his gap year.
“I found out about the program when I was in Sydney and researched it, so when I was in the area it just so happened to be when auditions were.”
Fellow third-year student Pierson Snowsill, who hails from Perth, said the academy was a “tight knit bunch of students all learning great stuff from the best in Australia.”
Choosing the trumpet because of its “standardised music aptitude”, Mr Snowsill is now looking to move from his home city to Melbourne in order to start performing in the music hot spot.
Second-year student Cassidy Gerken, who has ventured from Darwin, hoped to one-day create something similar to the academy in his hometown.
“I have not thought too much about what I am hoping to do after I finish here at the academy but I am thinking of moving back home to Darwin and doing a few gigs around there and maybe even get into teaching music,” Mr Gerken said.
“But this year I am looking forward to getting back into the academy environment, it is super motivational being around all the other students and I get more practice done here than I do at home.”
The trumpet player said he pursued the instrument because be believed it “sounded cool” when he first started playing it in Year 7.
The academy has big plans for this year’s cohort as Melbourne will be the hub of International Jazz Day celebrations in April.
