Jazz For Teens

Written By Mike Greenblatt

Jazz For Teens by Norman DeShong

Registration is now open for NJ PAC’s 2026-2027 TD Jazz For Teens Education Program. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center as been doing so for 29 years. The new semester starts Oct. 3 and runs through May 15. Classes are held Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at NJ PAC on Wall Street in Newark for students 13 to 18.  Financial aid packages are available. For more information, visit https://www.njpac.org/arts-education/.

One of its more successful graduates of the course is Tyshawn Sorey, a Newark kid, now 46, a composer- multi-instrumentalist-educator who won a Pulitzer Prize for Music, and was recognized as MacArthur Fellow Genius.

Consisting of classes in jazz history, theory, composition, instrumental technique, music business, production and improvisation, students get to perform with the James Moody Jazz Orchestra and the George Wein Scholars Ensemble, as well as record in a studio, and take field trips to Rutgers University’s Institute of Jazz Studies.

Mike Greenblatt

MIKE GREENBLATT has been writing for Goldmine magazine and New Jersey's Aquarian Weekly for more than 35 years. His writing subjects fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He's interviewed Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He was 18 when he attended Woodstock in 1969.

In addition to writing about music, Greenblatt has worked on publicity campaigns for The Animals, Pat Benatar, Johnny Winter, Tommy James and Richard Branson, among others. He is currently the editor of The Jersey Sound.

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