Thursdays 1–2:30 pm, 9/24–12/3; No class 11/26
| Age | Adult |
| Event Type | Class |
| Department | Vocal Performance |
| Day | Thu |
| Instructor | Tiffany Austin |
| Status | inperson event |
Designed for vocalists who want to build confidence improvising over chord changes and strengthen their musical ear, this course focuses on hearing harmony in real time and creating melodic ideas that connect naturally to the chords.
Through practical exercises, guided listening, and interactive ensemble work, students learn to recognize common harmonic progressions, follow chord movement, and develop stronger improvisational instincts.
The course explores ear training, call-and-response, transcription, melodic development, and improvisational techniques rooted in the jazz tradition.
Classes include live piano accompaniment, and the course concludes with a student showcase.
Prerequisites
No prior jazz improvisation experience is required.
Enrollment
Limited to eight students.
Thursdays 1–2:30 pm
9/24–12/3
No class 11/26
Tiffany Austin, $495
(in-person)
About Tiffany Austin
Tiffany Austin is a vocalist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator whose work draws from jazz, soul, and the broader African diasporic musical tradition. She has performed with artists including Pharoah Sanders, Roy Ayers, John Handy, Cyrus Chestnut, Taj Mahal, and Doug Carn, and has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony and Oakland Symphony.
As a composer, Austin has received commissions from the Oakland Symphony, San Jose Jazz, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and Healdsburg Jazz, where she serves as Musical Director of the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir. She has taught and presented educational programs with SFJAZZ, Stanford Jazz Workshop, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Roots, Jazz and American Music program.
Austin’s 2015 debut album, Nothing But Soul, received critical acclaim for its reimagining of songs associated with Hoagy Carmichael. Her 2018 follow-up, Unbroken, received a four-star review in DownBeat and reached #16 on the jazz radio charts. Her performance credits also include Opera Parallèle productions, the Vallejo Symphony’s Porgy and Bess, and appearances at venues including Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and the SFJAZZ Center.
A graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law, Austin is also co-founder of the Oakland performance space Wyldflowr Arts and The Diaspora Sessions, an interdisciplinary Black arts project bringing together music, dance, and visual art.