On a recent Monday, musicians crowded the couches and chairs on the fifth-floor lounge of Arnold Hall, talking in English and Hebrew.
The lounge area on the fifth-floor is a frequent place for Jazz students to rest and relax, and among them are students from Israel. With the Jazz School’s partnership with the Center for Jazz Studies at the Israel Conservatory of Music, or CJS, located in Tel Aviv, Israeli students are able to complete their last two years of their BFA degree in Manhattan.The partnership between the two schools has helped establish a symbolic legacy for how music is a universal language that can bridge two countries from across the world together.
“I feel very lucky to be a part of this,” said Gal Shaya, a recent graduate of the program and bassist. Shaya had no professional training before CSJ, and was approached by the founder and New School alumnus, Amit Golan, who discovered him playing in a military band in Jerusalem.
Once he completed his first two years within the CJS program, he came to the New School to finish his BFA. Although he graduated this past semester, he was drawn to people and classes outside of his major. “I was connected to those who had alternative interests,” Shaya said. With the ability to take liberal arts classes at Lang, and design-based classes at Parsons, Shaya was able to explore and expand alternatives to his craft.
“It was the first he main experience I have had with a serious jazz education,” said Tal Yahalom, a senior guitarist of the program. With the guidance of a teacher in his high school Yahalom started playing jazz. He eventually pursued the CJS program, and was granted musician status during his mandatory three-year service in the military. “I was basically doing both at the same time,” said Yahalom.
With the ability to balance both music and his service, Yahalom was able to complete his duty as an Israeli citizen, and pursue his passion in music. He eventually ended up in Manhattan, where he is on his last year of the program at The New School.
“When I came here I was shocked,” said Yahalom. “Israel mentality compared to American is completely different.”
Although music is considered to be the universal language, the approach to jazz is completely different between the two countries. While Israeli students are brought up with a more traditional approach to jazz, the American method tends to be a bit more alternative. “We’re a very progressive school as far as we’re sort of an open canon of what Jazz is, but not all of them are connected to the true tradition of Jazz, Israeli students are,” said Martin Mueller, the dean of Jazz.
This difference in mentality between the two is one contribution that is what makes Israeli students a vital part of the Jazz School’s community.
“They were always students that we aspired to play with as much of as possible because they were always excited about the music and really respected the tradition,” said Kyle Wilson, an alumnus and the assistant director of academic current affairs.
With the birth of the Jazz school in 1986, and the rise of Jazz in Israel, Israeli musicians have flocked to study at the school for three decades. “We caught the wave,” said Martin Mueller, the Dean of The New School for Jazz and founder of the partnership.
Long before this partnership Amit Golan, an Israeli Jazz pianist moved to US to attend the New School for Jazz since opportunities in Israel were few. Aside from an alum, Golan was the founder of CJS, and a key force in making the partnership happen. Although he died of a heart attack at the age of 45, his involvement with the program has helped establish a connection from halfway around the world.
Among other starters of the program was Arnie Lawrence, a professional saxophonist who once took his Israeli students across the West Bank to Ramallah to play with Palestinian musicians, something that is unimaginable today.
Aside from the partnership David Levy, the previous Dean of Parsons, helped launch the New School for Jazz, giving yet another example of how the New School community has the ability to transgress the normal conventions of studies and society.
The Jazz School’s partnership with CJS has allowed students not only the opportunity for students to study in Manhattan, but has bridged a connection from halfway around the world.