2023-2024 Auditions

Auditions for the Mississippians and the Collegians jazz ensembles as well as the UM Jazz Combos are held at the beginning of the academic year during the first week of the fall semester. Placements are typically for one year. The audition includes a prepared jazz etude, sight reading and an opportunity to improvise over the changes of the audition piece, F blues, or B-flat blues.

Click here to sign up for an audition time. All auditions will be held in the Jazz and Percussion Suite, room 112 near the vending machines. Wind instruments will audition on Monday, Aug. 21 or Tuesday, Aug. 22. Rhythm section instruments will audition Wednesday, Aug. 23. Please arrive a few minutes before your audition with your instrument assembled and ready to go.

Click here to download the audition etude. Please prepare the etude with a metronome. The etude is available in C (piano, guitar), B-flat (trumpet, tenor saxophone), E-flat (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone), and bass clef (trombone, bass guitar, double bass).

You can listen to reference recordings by Charlie Parker, Chad LB, Emmet Cohen (hey! that’s Pedro on piano!), and Lucie Horsch for inspiration. You can practice the etude with an accompanying track on YouTube or in iReal if you have the app. You can adjust the playback tempo on YouTube in settings.

You can also practice improvising on F blues or B-flat blues with a backing track on YouTube.

Scholarships and Graduate Assistantships

Merit based scholarships are available for outstanding undergraduate and graduate musicians.

A graduate assistantship in jazz performance is available for students pursuing a M.M. (any concentration) or Ph.D. in Music Education and includes a stipend, 75% tuition waiver and full waiver of non-resident fee.

Contact Dr. Michael Worthy for more information.