BA (Hons) Jazz and Cabaret Performance

Program Overview

This BA (Hons) Jazz and Cabaret Performance degree develops solo and ensemble performance skills for careers in cruise, hotel, and entertainment performance. Students receive individual tuition in their specialist discipline and join performance ensembles. Working with industry partners, they gain vital skills and showcase their talents through industry showcases and professional showreels.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This BA (Hons) Jazz and Cabaret Performance degree will develop your solo performance skills in jazz singing or playing as well as your skills as an ensemble performer to prepare you for careers in cruise, hotel, and entertainment performance. You will receive individual tuition in your specialist vocal or accompaniment discipline throughout your studies and have the opportunity to join one or more of our six orchestras, five choirs and nine other taught performance ensembles. You will be trained in the art of performance itself and can choose to study the Alexander Technique, yoga and other skills alongside a wide choice of contextual modules. Working with industry partners TAG (Talent Artistic Group) and Sonic Artists and with professionals from the West End, jazz venues, BBC Radio, chart topping recording artists and the most prestigious cruise companies in the world, you will develop vital skills to be competitive in this rapidly expanding entertainment sector. In addition to weekly tutor led Jazz nights on campus, you will be guaranteed a place in our Cabaret floor shows as a soloist or showband member. In your final year you will develop your professional showreel and perform in an industry showcase. On this course you will:

• Develop your jazz performance skills.
• Have the opportunity to join a selection of our 6 orchestras, 5 choirs, 9 large ensembles and over 70 small ensembles.
• Perform in Cabaret floor shows.
• Perform in an industry showcase during your final year.
• Graduate with a professional showreel.

Outline:

Year One:

• Cabaret Skills: This module will help you develop your individual skills, putting your technique into practice in the development of performance in a variety of styles and contexts.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
• History of Cabaret: To develop an individual voice as a cabaret performer it is important to understand the traditions of entertainment from which the role derives.
• Introduction to Jazz Theory: Jazz theory is an important part of the overall development and toolbox of the developing jazz musician.
• Jazz Repertoire: This module will explore a different composer and selected compositions each week.
• Performance Development: This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.
• Professional Resilience: This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.
• Professional Skills: Supporting the Cabaret Skills module, this year long programme of study is focused on professional practice, developing the different skills needed for cabaret performance, as well as developing a good sense of technical knowledge.

Year Two:

• Cabaret Skills: This module will help you develop your individual skills, putting your technique into practice in the development of performance in a variety of styles and contexts.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
• History of Modern Jazz: This module will look at jazz from two perspectives.
Initially, the module will look at the history of jazz, starting with its birth in New Orleans and examining its stylistic developments concentrating on a number of key figures and movements in its evolution up to present day.
• Masterclass: This module continues to develop your performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context.
You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.
• Performance Development: This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.
• Professional Skills: Supporting the Cabaret Skills module, this year long programme of study is focused on professional practice, developing the different skills needed for cabaret performance, as well as developing a good sense of technical knowledge.
• Self-Employment, Employment and Visualising Success: This module explores the local and national marketplace and will introduce you to a number of different models of successful positioning within it.
• The Roots of Jazz: You will explore the roots of jazz and focus on the development of jazz between 1890 and 1930 as you critically analyse the social, political and cultural context in New Orleans.

Year Three:

• Arranging for Jazz: You will develop your ability to take standard repertoire from the jazz canon and rearrange it into your own personal vision, which is a key skill within the jazz domain.
• Cabaret Performance Showreel: This large all-year module incorporates a huge array of classes specific to your specialisms, including: instrumentals studies, sight-reading, vocal rep, musical direction, spoken voice/entertainment skills, video and audio editing, plus your chosen option (comedy song, guitar or magic) to create your own Industry Showreel at the conclusion of the course.
• Ensemble: You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity.
• Performance Development: This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.
• Personal Study: In this module you will select an area of music to research theoretically and practically over a period of time.
• Post Modern Jazz: You will seek to find answers in a postmodern jazz world and ask if the intrinsic identity of jazz has been lost and where it can go from here.
• Venues and Organisations: In this module, you will conduct self-analysis in your knowledge of and skills in accompaniment, clowning, magic and comedy, as you discuss with confidence aspects of practice relevant to their individual choice of or combination of discipline development.

Assessment:

You will be assessed through a range of assignments including essays, exams, exhibitions, performance and practical work, project work, presentations and seminar discussions.

Teaching:

You will study using lecturers, seminars, practical classes and workshops. You will learn from a core team of experienced and qualified tutors alongside a wide-ranging team of more than 60 specialist instrumental and vocal teachers.

Careers:

This BA (Hons) Jazz and Cabaret Performance degree prepares you for a range of careers after you graduate. Past graduates have performed in:

• West End productions
• Major touring productions throughout Europe
• Major cruise ships including Disney
• UK and International small-scale touring theatre
• Film and TV in both the UK and US
• Edinburgh Festival
• Cabaret
• Cruise ship bands on P&O
• Warner Leisure hotels
Graduates have also secured roles as stage managers, arts managers and producers, picking up contracts in the UK and around the world. Further Study: You could choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level. Study options at the University of Chichester include:
• MA Music Performance
• MA Music Teaching
• PGCE
• PhD/MPhil
• The Guardian University Guide 2023 ranked the University of Chichester as the 27th best UK university for music.
• The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022 ranked the University of Chichester as 7th in the UK for teaching quality.
• The Complete University Guide 2023 ranked the University of Chichester in the top 10 for student satisfaction.
• Students have the opportunity to join one or more of our six orchestras, five choirs and nine other taught performance ensembles.
• The program is taught by a core team of experienced and highly qualified tutors alongside a wide-ranging team of more than 60 specialist instrumental and vocal teachers.
• As well as supporting student development and the student experience, our staff are active, practicing professional musicians and researchers who regularly perform and record.
• The program offers students the opportunity to study abroad.