Juilliard Jazz Orchestra

Prestigious Conservatorys Jazz Ensemble

The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra (JJO), the premier large ensemble for Juilliard Jazz, was founded when the program began in 2001. Comprising bachelor’s and master’s degree students, the orchestra is led by resident conductor Jerome Jennings, a Juilliard Jazz alumnus, and performs ten times during the academic year on campus, in Alice Tully Hall, and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. The JJO performs a wide spectrum of American jazz music, from Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Machito to contemporary composers including Jimmy Heath, Wynton Marsalis, Elio Villafranca, Ted Nash, and many others. The orchestra has performed with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Albany Symphony and in 2019 it was the featured large ensemble at the Jazz Education Network Annual Conference in Reno, Nevada. Recent guest conductors have included José Madera, Scotty Barnhart, Jon Faddis, Vince Giordano, Bill Charlap, and the director of Juilliard Jazz, Wynton Marsalis. Alumni of the JJO perform in various professional ensembles including the Maria Schneider, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Afro Latin Jazz and Vanguard Jazz Orchestras, the WDR, Christian McBride and Terraza Big Bands, Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, and with artists such as Michael Bublé.