Frequently Asked Questions

Joining Penn Jazz requires an audition. Auditions will be held on September 1 from 4pm-10pm in Platt 177. Please sign up for an audition here.

Besides organized auditions, rolling auditions will be held and offered throughout the entire year. Auditions will consist of a prepared piece, sight reading, and jamming in a jazz combo with other Penn Jazz members.  More information about auditions can be found here. 

Please make sure to reach out to our Current President, Jacob Isaac at info@penn-jazz.com if you have any questions about auditions or anything Penn Jazz related!

Penn Jazz produces a show each semester and takes the entire semester preparing for said show. We are a Jazz Big Band and will mostly play Big Band tunes for our set, but will also feature smaller ensembles and our own jazz combos during the show. The Fall Shows are traditionally in the first week of December on Friday and Saturday. 

The time commitment for Penn Jazz is 3 hours of big band rehearsal per week with possible 1-2 hour sectional rehearsals sprinkled in as needed, at the discretion of the section leader. Shows will typically range from 1 hour to 90 minutes long. 

Rehearsals for the Fall Semester will begin the week of September 11.

Of course, Jazz at Penn is a pretty cozy space, so there is a lot of overlap in personnel between the two programs. The Curricular Jazz Combos are coached by music faculty and directed by Dan Paul (dan@danpaulmusic.com) are 0.5 C.U. ensembles that rehearse once a week and perform 3 songs each at the end of each semester at a full-program concert. Penn Jazz often recruits members from these ensembles. 

Within Penn Jazz, we operate our own jazz combos that perform at hired gigs around Penn's Campus and around the Philadelphia area. We will typically send out combos on an opt-in basis, so the President will reach out to musicians they know are interested to build a combo for any given gig. 

The Curricular Jazz Combos are also given external gigs at the discretion of the Music Department and the Annenberg Center.