Where for jazz?

My little bro was intending to apply for popular music courses next year but his guitar teacher has suggested that a jazz course might suit him better because:
A) his musical interests are beginning to head in that direction
B) Jazz keeps more options open in terms of future opportunities, with its balance of improvisation & sight reading.

Places that have been suggested include Birmingham, Leeds College of Music, Newcastle College Performance Academy. If he took a gap year, he might be able to improve sufficiently to apply to Guildhall and Trinity (he doesn't have a formal music background, so he has some catching up to do). He would definitely prefer somewhere more performance-orientated than academic - not sure if there are any university courses that come close to this?

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated from either jazz players (not many on here I guess) or classical musicians or anyone else for that matter

thanks for your help :smile:

Reply 1

Pink*Guildhall

if he takes a gap year, he will only have until the audition date (likely to be around november, december) to show that he is up to the standard of everyone else. i'm not saying that it's impossible, but it may well be a hard task.
however, the places suggested all sound good for jazz, particularly leeds.

Reply 2

peachmelba

thanks pink

anyone have more general views on the merits of the different conservatoires? what it's like to be a student there? interaction if any between jazz and other genres?