Certificates

Entrepreneurship

Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship

Enhance your degree with the business, marketing and management skills that will prepare any student for a career in the arts.

This certificate provides an excellent foundation for those who want to become working artists, musicians, actors, designers, and those who want to work in arts management in businesses and non-profit organizations. It provides each student with the unique opportunity to explore their creative process and their ability to collaborate with others.

The Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship is meant to extend the study of an individual arts discipline. Students across the disciplines of Music, Theatre, and Visual Studies (Art, Art History, Design, Digital Storytelling, and Film), benefit from the business, marketing, and organizational skills offered by certificate courses to develop the skills needed to build a thriving career in the many arts industries. Aimed primarily at degree-seeking students in the School of Music, Department of Theatre, and School of Visual Studies, this certificate is also available to students in other departments as an add-on to a degree or as a stand-alone certificate.

Students interested in pursuing the Arts Entrepreneurship certificate should first consult with their academic advisor based on their major. Students from the School of Music should contact Lauren Hynes and Visual Studies students should contact Kay Gregory. If you have any questions about the program itself, feel free to contact Dr. Pete Zambito, the faculty coordinator for the Arts Entrepreneurship certificate.

Undergraduate Courses

Graduate Courses

Jazz band playing

Certificate in Jazz Studies

This program is designed for undergraduate music majors or graduate students who have already completed a degree in music. This certificate is designed to deepen the student’s preparation for a career in jazz performance or further study in jazz.

Undergraduate Prerequisites

  • Must meet prerequisites for the courses taken in the certificate
  • Must audition for the required ensembles (see requirements below)
  • Must audition for the program

Graduate Certificate in Jazz Studies

The Graduate Certificate in Jazz Studies is a one-year program that provides opportunities for continued development of skills in jazz-specific areas, such as improvisation, pedagogy, and arranging. The certificate is available to degree-seeking and non-degree seeking students alike, non-music as well as music majors, and is designed as an intensive introduction to jazz performance. The program will deepen the student’s preparation for a career in jazz performance or prepare the student for further study in jazz.

Entrance into the Graduate Certificate program requires a live audition, although video-recorded auditions will be acceptable in rare cases, by permission of the Director of Jazz Studies. Entrance into the program also requires completion of a Bachelor of Music degree (or demonstrated equivalent), with a GPA of 3.0 in the last 60 credit hours. In the event that a candidate does not meet the required prerequisites for a specific curriculum, appropriate course(s) may be added as additional requirements.

Graduate Prerequisites

  • Bachelors degree in music (or demonstrated equivalent)
  • GPA of 3.0 in the last 60 hours of the BM
  • Must audition for ensembles (see requirements below)
  • Must audition for the program
  • Must demonstrate basic jazz keyboard proficiency or Jazz Piano Class (MUS_I_VT 1620) will be a required (not for graduate credit)

All students who wish to declare the certificate and audition should contact the Director of Jazz Studies, Sam Griffith.

Undergraduate Courses

Students must pass the following courses with a C- or higher:

Graduate Courses

Instrumentalists (other than drummers): 

Prepare one jazz standard and one blues in the key of your choice, improvising on each piece. Please provide your own accompaniment (Aebersold or other play-along CD). 

Drummers: 

Perform the following grooves at the prescribed tempos: 

  • Swing at 120 bpm 
  • Double-Time Swing at 240 bpm 
  • Bossa Nova at 100 bpm 
  • Samba (double-time bossa nova) at 100 bpm (half-note) 
  • Funk/Hiphop at 100 bpm 
  • Ballad (with brushes) at 80 bpm 
  • Alternating four (4) measures swing with four (4) measures solo at 120 bpm

Vocalists: 

Prepare one medium up-tempo jazz standard and one ballad, no more than one chorus of each. Please provide your own piano accompaniment (Aebersold or other play-along CD).