David Roitstein is chair of the Jazz Studies program and teaches jazz piano, theory, ear training, and arranging at the California Institute of the Arts.
David Roitstein, from the California Institute of the Arts, talks about the Cal Arts music department. The department focuses on open collaboration between genres, departments, and organizations. He discusses the addition of the jazz program to the existing world music, composition, and performance programs at Cal Arts. He describes how Cal Arts is not interested in each music program being separate from the other. He explains that the faculty likes the idea of forgetting what program people are in and making all the programs interactive with each other. This is unusual in most academic settings. The biggest part of the structure of programs at Cal Arts is the small size. It is important at Cal Arts that students be recording and performing all the time instead of having one performance at the end of the semester. Also in this segment, he discusses the flexibility of the curriculum.
David Roitstein, from the California Institute of the Arts, talks about the opportunities for composition at Cal Arts. He explains that people come to Cal Arts because they want composing to make up a majority of their study time. Composition majors at Cal Arts are able to perform and record their works frequently. Also in this segment, he discusses the composition competition and the award to record at Capitol Records.
David Roitstein, from the California Institute of the Arts, talks about different ways to distribute your music. He discusses how there are many avenues of music distribution that are easily accesible to the artist. Cal Arts provides classes to help students learn how to market their music. Also in this segment, he comments on the advantages of small classes and one-on-one tutoring.
