EMC Instrumental Jazz
The EMC Instrumental Jazz Camp is open to students completing the 6th through 12th
grades. This camp is designed to meet the needs of those students who are interested
in jazz at all levels, providing an instructional and educational experience for both
beginners and more advanced students. Students will have an opportunity to study jazz
with EIU’s outstanding jazz faculty and other fine musicians from around the country.
Students participate in the following:
- Big Bands
- Jazz Theory
- Improvisation
- Master classes
- Jazz Seminar
- Jazz Combos (for the more advanced students)
Students will be placed in a big band according to their current skill level by audition on the first day of camp. Please see the link below for instrument specific audition information.
Participants will also have an opportunity to perform for family and friends at a final concert on Saturday, the last day of camp.
About the Instrumental Jazz Camp Faculty
Dr. Sam Fagaly, EMC Jazz Coordinator, is the Director of Jazz Studies, conductor of the award winning
EIU Jazz Ensemble, and professor of applied saxophone at Eastern Illinois University.
He has extensive teaching and performing experience.
He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Florida, his Masters of Music from Louisiana State University, and his Doctor of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado.
(read Dr. Fagaly's full biography here)
Percussionist Jamie V. Ryan thrives on playing and teaching many types of music. In 1999, Jamie co-founded the
Africa->West Percussion Trio, which plays its own music influenced by the African
Diaspora and the Western tradition, as well as standard repertoire for chamber percussion.
Jamie is also in demand as a drum set artist across the Midwest. He he has played
with Tim Whalen’s Trio, Nonet, and Tribute to Art Blakey bands, avant-metal group
Freighter (www.freighterband.com), and numerous other groups in the jazz, rock, and
Latin music genres. He toured Europe and the United States with the Leo Sidran band,
and recorded for the GoJazz and Stellar Records labels. He has taught at Mansfield
University, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Lawrence University. Jamie
received his B.M. from Lawrence University (magna cum laude), and did his graduate
work at the University of Wisconsin.
(Read the rest of Mr. Ryan's biography here)
Paul Johnston has enjoyed teaching at Eastern since 2004. He directs the Jazz Lab Band, coordinates the combo program, and teaches courses in
jazz piano, improvisation, and arranging. Paul remains very active as a teacher, performer, and composer. He is at home in a wide variety of musical styles and has performed with artists including
Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Nancy Wilson, Monica Mancini, and Bernadette Peters. A
native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he studied at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and at Indiana University, where he earned a Master's Degree in jazz
studies, a Performer Diploma in piano, and a Performer's Certificate. Soloists, chamber
groups, and jazz ensembles from across the country have performed his compositions
and arrangements. His composition Mountain Sketches for Horn and Piano won the 2014 International Horn
Society Composition Competition, and DuoXXI included his work for violin, cello, and
piano on their recent Albany Records compact disc, Metal Cicadas. Alfred Music has also published several collections of his solo piano arrangements
in their Jazz Performer series. Paul serves on the summer faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and teaches
at Eastern's Summer Music Camp. He is an alumnus of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute and the Henry Mancini Institute.