Jazzschool

The California Jazz Conservatory, formerly known as the Jazzschool, is a privately owned non-profit music school for jazz students in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1997, the school won accreditation as a conservatory in early 2014. It is the only American school with a year-round jazz music program.

The California Jazz Conservatory was founded in 1997 as "Jazzschool" by Susan Muscarella, a jazz pianist who studied with Wilbert Baranco in the 1970s, joined a band, and released a solo album called Rainflowers in 1979. She first taught at then became the director of the Jazz Ensembles program at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1989 she left the Cal music department for private teaching and professional performance, playing at various times with Sonny Rollins, Sheila E., Marian McPartland, Marlena Shaw and Arturo Sandoval.

In 1997 Muscarella bought an old 1880s residence at 2377 Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley to house the school and a connected cafe called La Note, the latter run by her neighbor, environment designer Dororthée Mitrani-Bell. The California Jazz Conservatory enrolled about 130–150 students in its first quarter, taught by some 25 local jazz musicians and educators. By 2001 the school enrolled 600 students each quarter. The street-level La Note space was used by the California Jazz Conservatory after hours as a classroom and performance space seating 60.

In 2002 to suit its expansion the school moved to larger accommodations a few blocks away at 2087 Addison Street, leaving the cafe to operate separately. The new location—the basement of the historic S. H. Kress & Co. retail store in the middle of the Downtown Berkeley Arts District—was rebuilt to contain 12 rehearsal rooms, 14 classrooms, a 60-seat concert space and a snack shop called Jazzcaffé. The performance space was named Hardymon Hall to memorialize Berkeley High School's dynamic jazz educator Phil Hardymon who founded the Berkeley Jazz Project in 1975 for high school students. In January 2002 the inaugural performance in Hardymon Hall featured singer Madeline Eastman backed by pianist Frank Martin, bassist Peter Barshay and drummer Vince Lateano.

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