Our Mission:

The Institute for Creative Music is dedicated to building a fresh model for contemporary jazz education through integrative learning and performance experiences. Since 2011, the IfCM has been collaborating with schools, organizations, and individuals throughout the United States. Given the origins of jazz as Black American Music and its connections to the fight for social justice, our teaching aims to center not just the mechanics of the music, but its history, culture, and capacity to create change. Jazz and improvised music serve as inspiration for justice and equality through communication, collaboration, understanding, and the amplification of Black voices in American culture. IfCM ensembles, workshops, camps, and courses are intergenerational and accessible to students of all backgrounds and abilities. This programming emphasizes strong musical fundamentals, the flexibility of improvisation, the importance of historical and cultural context, an understanding of current technologies, and peer-directed teamwork as the skills necessary to create a musical mark on the world. The IfCM supports students, teachers, and schools by providing scholarships, teaching and learning materials, professional development, and residencies.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Who are IfCM programs for?

• IfCM programs are for learners of all ages and experience-levels.  This specifically includes middle/high school students, college students/college prep, adults of all ages, hobbyists, professionals, retired & ready to jam! Our programs emphasize accessibility and integrative learning and teaching strategies.

How does the IfCM teach?

• The IfCM teaching artists teach utilize principles of Music Learning Theory with the goal of teaching audiation (based on the research and testing of Edwin E. Gordon and others). An example of this is when we use the “whole-part-whole” learning sequence with a focus on “sound before sight before theory.” This means that students experience complete versions of songs, the songs are then broken into parts and patterns, the patterns are rearranged and developed through exploration, creativity, and improvisation, and then the complete song is put back together again. We have the goal of learning through listening, movement, singing, and playing in order to know core repertoire of all genres and create our own.

What kinds of music can I learn with the IfCM?

• The IfCM focuses on learning foundational folk song repertoire as well as jazz repertoire and popular music. This includes tunes written by artists like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, American Songbook standards, improvised music and original compositions by our Teaching Artists, and pop songs by artists like Radiohead, Björk, and Prince. 

Why does the IfCM take this approach?

• We learn music in a way similar to how we learn spoken language. By following the aural/oral traditions rooted in Black American music we pay tribute to the history and culture of swing, bebop, and the community learning practices of the great musicians who created this music.

I already play in jazz band at my school, why should I join the DJW?

• We are huge fans of the DISD jazz groups and other school programs in our area and have our professional performing group, the IfCM Collective, visit for outreach performances regularly. The DJW aims to supplement the great teaching that goes on in school music programs and get students of all ages interested in playing jazz and improvising. We focus a lot on solo and small group improvisation and playing by ear (without sheet music) rather than performing big band jazz, the more typical model for jazz in school music programs. We are also open to students on any instrument or voice type, so we have people in the group learning jazz and improvising who wouldn't typically be able to participate in traditional jazz band programs because they play bassoon, banjo, or violin. For those students that play in both DJW and their school jazz bands, the improvisation skills they build in our workshops can be applied to the music they learn at school. We also serve folks who aren’t in the DISD, though, as our classes are open to adults and home school students, as well.

Organizational History:

2011-2021

The Institute for Creative Music (IfCM) was formed in 2011 by co-directors Chris Teal and Nick Finzer with the mission of building a fresh model for contemporary jazz education through integrative learning and performance experiences. The organization expanded to include a team of eight Teaching Artists who collaborated to present participatory, jazz-focused residencies, concerts, and workshops at schools, universities, and community centers. Assisted by a six-member board of directors and interns from the Eastman School of Music, Princeton University, and the University of Cambridge, the IfCM continued to build its capacity to offer performances and educational experiences.

Educational workshops that emphasize participation, creativity, and improvisation are at the core of the IfCM mission, and the organization has been offering these workshops since its inception. In addition to events near the IfCM’s origins in New York State, Teaching Artists traveled to Montana and Washington in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2022 thanks to the support of Plum Creek Great Classrooms grants to work with middle and high school students. These residencies brought workshops on improvisation, songwriting, recording technology, student leadership, and aural learning into dozens of classrooms as well as after school and weekend camps.

The IfCM began operating in Arkansas when Co-Director Chris Teal moved to Fayetteville in 2016. In collaboration with the University of Arkansas Community Music School, the IfCM has presented regular programming including semester-long jazz workshops for youth and adults, outreach workshops at area primary and secondary schools, Creative Jazz Fundamentals video course curriculum, summer camps, and the Fayetteville Jazz Festival. The Creative Jazz Fundamentals video curriculum (www.creativejazzfundamentals.com) replicates the experience of participating in a live workshop where students can learn jazz songs, style, and improvisation by ear and has been utilized for teaching and at-home practice in the IfCM jazz workshops, University of Arkansas improvisation courses and combos, and the first fully virtual summer camp in 2020. The IfCM operated school-year jazz workshops and summer camps at the University of Arkansas from 2016-2021 and founded and operated the Fayetteville Jazz Festival (2019, 2020, 2021). In 2021 the IfCM hosted the first “Certified Apprentice Teacher'' training program as a part of their week-long Creative Music Camp at the University of Arkansas.

2021-2023:

IfCM Director Chris Teal and his family relocated to Denton from Fayetteville, AR in summer 2021. After two years of researching music education methods, developing curriculum, and researching educational needs in Denton and the surrounding area, the Institute for Creative Music is excited to start a new phase for the organization. By offering a comprehensive schedule of classes and ensembles centered around the principles of Dr. Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT) we will be able to engage students for their musical learning journey from birth through adulthood. While our previous programming in Rochester, NY and Fayetteville, AR utilized elements of Dr. Gordon’s MLT in jazz performance workshops for musicians ages 11 and older, we see a need to add this type of education for early childhood (ages 0-4) and elementary age (5-12) students. Children learn best when they learn music in a similar way that they learn their native language, that is to develop listening, speaking, thinking, reading, and writing vocabularies in that specific order. By centering IfCM learning methods with Dr. Gordon’s concept of developing musical audiation (the ability to think music in the mind with understanding) IfCM teaching artists can prepare students for lifelong understanding and love of music.

After establishing the Denton Jazz Workshops (DJW) in the fall of 2022 with Grace Frarey, Teal started this next phase of organizational growth in the spring of 2023 with Creative Music Kids (CMK) programming. CMK currently offers Family Music Classes (ages 0-4) and Group Piano Classes (5-7), and starting in summer 2023 a new class, “Come Join the Band'', introduces students ages 8-12 to “modern band” instruments (guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, vocals) through playing in small ensembles. All IfCM classes, school residencies, and camps run on sliding scale payments where all people are encouraged to participate regardless of ability to pay. The IfCM wishes to be 100% inclusive of all interested people and our programming is currently made possible by donations from members of the community. We are proud to serve the diverse population of Denton with our programming, including members of the LGTBQIA, Black, and Latinx communities.

Learn more about the IfCM programs:

Our Collaborators: