FL
Brandon Bryant is currently a third-year DMA candidate at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He is a jazz trombone performance major, an active performer in the community, a Henry Mancini Fellow, and a teaching assistant in the Frost school’s music outreach program, where he teaches private and group lessons to middle and high school students throughout the county. Brandon Bryant also oversees the music outreach programs jazz mentoring program, which is a program where he supervises and guides undergraduate jazz majors as they teach high school students. Brandon has received his undergraduate degree in music education from the Frost school of Music. After, Brandon became a dynamic and impactful educator in his three years as a band director in Miami-Dade County Public Schools helping his program grow and students achieve high marks in school and auditions. Brandon then went on to receive his master’s degree in jazz performance and was a jazz trombone teaching assistant at the Frost School of Music. After completing his Master’s Degree, Brandon then went on to complete a few contracts for Princess Cruises as a house band musician where he had the opportunity to travel and perform with renowned guest musicians in 19 different countries, including Greenland, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Canada to name a few.
For his DMA essay, Brandon plans to gather information on four musical concepts (Improvisation, the use of technology, listening in and outside the ensemble, and rehearsal techniques) from various jazz pedagogy books and then conduct interviews with successful middle school jazz educators from the South Florida area. After the interviews, he plans to compare how the concepts are taught in the pedagogy books as opposed to the practical teaching experiences of successful middle school jazz educators. The aim is to help middle school educators, with or without jazz experience, and give them valuable teaching tips from some of the area’s finest jazz educators. Brandon’s career goal is to become a college educator and to continue impacting young musicians of all ages.
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
5:00 PM – 5:25 PM US EST