NEC at 50
This is a banner year for 50th anniversaries: Woodstock, the Apollo 11 moon landing—and the founding of New England Conservatory’s jazz studies program.
Although degree programs in jazz at colleges and universities are practically a given nowadays, NEC’s department—the first fully accredited jazz program at a classical conservatory in the United States—was radical and new at its founding. Back in 1969, it was possible to learn about jazz at schools such as Towson, Indiana, and Berklee, but full-fledged jazz departments were few and far between; for 20 years, the University of North Texas had been the only U.S. institution of higher learning to offer a degree in jazz studies.
In America at this time, jazz was still largely seen as unteachable in academia—an artform that could be picked up only “on the job” in real-world performance situations—or, worse, a subject not worthy of being taught alongside “serious” music.
Enter Gunther Schuller
NEC was on precarious financial footing in 1967, the school’s 100th anniversary year; enrollment was a little over 200 students (roughly 500 fewer than the ideal), and there was neither an orchestra nor a chorus, due to lack of funds. Into this atmosphere came musical polyglot Gunther Schuller, a high-school dropout who had risen to the rank of principal French hornist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and an advocate of jazz who had played on Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool sessions.
“A staunch modernist, Gunther was always interested in new developments in jazz and concert music, while at the same time having a great respect and appreciation for the history of jazz and Western music,” says Ken Schaphorst, the current chair of
