Striking Up the Band Brings Recognition for Jazz Studies Program

Tim Ishii Music

The success and recognition of the jazz program in the Department of Music at UT Arlington is sweet, sweet music to Professor Tim Ishii’s ears.

The director of jazz studies (pictured, at left) conducted the UTA Jazz Orchestra in an October 2011 concert at the Levitt Pavilion in Arlington, Texas. Special guest that night was saxophonist Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones), and just one of several jazz heavyweights – Terell Stafford, Bob Mintzer, and Byron Stripling, to name a few – to share the stage with Ishii’s students. The jazz show has quickly become a marquee event for the North Texas venue.

The program’s students and faculty have been busy building the department’s international reputation. This past summer, Ishii and his colleagues taught and performed at a weeklong youth workshop in Rheine, Germany. Earlier this year, junior jazz studies major Sam Garner placed third in a prestigious national piano competition. Ishii said quality faculty recruiting talented students has strengthened the department.

“We’ve been able to assemble a really great staff,” he said. “We have phenomenal performers, and equally great teachers. You have to have people who can teach and also model for students. … We get a lot of great talent to audition for us every year. The word is getting out.”