a nonprofit presenter of jazz artistic and education programs

Launched in 2001, the SFJAZZ Jazz in the Middle program provides curriculum-based residencies, linking jazz and academic subjects in the classroom. The program was designed and created by SFJAZZ in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to address the need for arts education in middle schools. Jazz in the Middle directly supports and enhances students’ work in academic subjects. Offered free of charge to public middle schools, the program has doubled in size each year since its inception, and currently serves twelve middle schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.

The SFJAZZ Education Department’s staff, curriculum specialists, and Artist/Educators work closely with SFUSD administrators and classroom teachers at all stages of the program in order to effectively serve the needs of the students. Curriculum is designed in compliance with government guidelines and District content standards, and informed by the most current research in arts education. Biannual Teacher Training Institutes provide professional development and jazz resources to participating teachers. The collaboration extends into the classroom, where SFJAZZ Artist/Educators engage students in a process of creative transformation.

Jazz in the Middle’s flagship jazz & poetry curricular module is based upon the rich connections and artistic parallels between linguistic and musical expression. Bringing together world-class jazz Artist/Educators and the Poet Laureate of San Francisco with San Francisco middle school Language Arts students, the residency empowers students to create and perform original works of art, both inspired and informed by jazz. Throughout the residency, students engage in a dynamic, collaborative, creative process with professional adult artists, learning to express themselves.

The residency’s teaching methodology confers skills, tools, and methods that enable students to negotiate this important transitional period of their lives. Drawing on the fundamental elements of jazz, students are immersed in the concepts of collaboration, improvisation, and transformation in a real-life simulation mirroring the creation of live jazz on the bandstand. Students apply these valuable skills by responding creatively to music, writing powerful and personal poems that capture their individuality, and performing their work in a true jazz collaboration.