Last week, our Jazz Department hosted the KC Jazz ASPIRE Writing Camp with masterclasses by Benjamin Herman, Thomas Azier, Jake Sherman, Wolfert Brederode, Marieke van Dijk and many more. Head of Department Bart Suèr: “We challenged the students to write their own compositions together with several coaches who represent different styles of music. Students often are performing artists, but no songwriters.” Benny Sings, one of the other guests last week, was very clear: “Just write as much as possible and a good song will arise. Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson wrote 792 songs that turned out to be trash, only 8 compositions reached the final selection of the ‘Thriller’ album. Make a lot of trash and every now and then a good song will come by.”

Do you want to read more about this project?