Susan Muscarella: Jazz Education Hall of Fame

News, From the Magazine, Susan Muscarella

By Yoshi Kato I Jan. 8, 2024

“I mortgaged my house a couple of times, but it was worth it,” Muscarella says of working to establish Jazzschool and California Jazz Conservatory.

(Photo: Courtesy California Jazz Conservatory)

There’s a paragraph in Susan Muscarella’s book California Jazz Conservatory: A 25-Year Retrospective that brings a smile: “I will never forget that late September day in 1997 — the first week of Jazzschool’s maiden voyage quarter — when jazz guitarist and founding faculty member Tim Volpicella stopped me in the building’s narrow hallway to tell me he thought starting a jazz school was such a great idea that he predicted I would get rich (!) …

“Years went by, and, as much as I appreciated Tim’s optimism, it came as no surprise to me that his prediction never materialized.”

While Muscarella may have never leapfrogged tax brackets like some of her Bay Area tech industry neighbors, the educator and pianist can enjoy bragging rights for founding the first and, currently, the only accredited independent conservatory devoted to jazz. She’s had an immeasurable impact on generations of music students. And for that, she is now a member of the DownBeat Jazz Education Hall of Fame.

“I mortgaged my house a couple of times, but it was worth it,” Muscarella reflected during an interview at her office at the conservatory. “I couldn’t have built the school without that. And I couldn’t not build the school.”

With characteristic modesty, Muscarella typically deflects focus from herself to the CJC. But discussing the school’s legacy without investigating her own accomplishments as an instrumentalist and instructor is akin to examining Duke Ellington’s career as a composer and bandleader but not as a pianist.

“I would always wait with bated breath any time she was going to perform,” said Maya Kronfeld, a keyboardist with the likes of Thana Alexa and Taylor Eigsti, a literary scholar and an early student of Muscarella’s. “And just being in her office, having a piano lesson, was like being in a swinging sanctuary. It was just such a special environment and time.”

Muscarella started as a classical piano student growing up in Oakland. “I was predisposed to improvising,” she recalled. “I started playing when I was 8, and my teacher improvised for the silent films. I could play by ear, and she caught on to that and inspired me to work on improvising and look at what made up music — theory and all of that.”

Most of her school friends were listening to guitar bands like the Beatles, and she hadn’t heard any piano music on the radio until she had her jazz epiphany. “When I heard Ramsey Lewis Trio’s ‘The In Crowd’ on AM radio, and heard my own instrument, that was really inspiring for me.”

After 14 years playing in and directing the UC Berkeley Jazz Ensembles, Muscarella was ready to pursue her own vision for jazz education. Founded at a former restaurant near Berkeley High School in 1997, Jazzschool featured classes and workshops for students of all ages. She would lead the school’s transformations, moves and expansions including a shift to non-profit status in 2002 (allowing for tax-deductable donations) and a relocation to the Downtown Berkeley Arts District in 2002 and the eventual establishment of the accredited spinoff CJC, which would offer associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

“I ran the community school program and realized I wanted a more formal program of study. So started designing a curriculum for a bachelor’s degree,” she recounted. “And becoming accredited was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life because it helped me build an even more solid foundation for the program.”

When asked about her educational philosophy, she replied that it has stayed the same whether applied to Jazzschool’s community programs or CJC’s degreed offerings. “Jazz programs have been criticized for focusing more on the classroom than on the stage,” she noted. “So when I created the tagline for the school, I started out by saying: ‘for jazz study and performance.’ And we’ve given our students every [possible] opportunity to perform.”

CJC’s portfolio continues to include concert series, summer instrumental and vocal intensives and even a café.

After 26 years, Muscarella is retiring from the administrative side of her school. “I’m coming back around to what inspired me to start the school in the first place: the music and the students and teaching, which I really love,” she shared. Though she has a hard time qualifying the impact she’s had, others can.

“I was taught in an environment where she was the model for what leadership was, and that made me feel so at home as a young woman,” declared Kronfeld, who is currently an assistant professor of literature at Duke University. “Seeing her being able to realize her vision so deeply was a huge influence on me becoming an educator.”

In the end, it turns out Muscarella did get rich after all. DB