Jazz In The Pines Student Clinic

Students who attended Jazz in the Pines Student Clinic in 2025 do not have to re-audition to attend in 2026. You will be automatically accepted and will be contacted to confirm your attendance through CampInTouch after you complete your application.

All other applicants should submit an audition following the guidelines below.

Priority Audition Deadline: February 15, 2026
First round evaluation will take place shortly after this date. You will be notified of acceptance as soon as evaluations are complete. Auditions will be reviewed on a rolling basis after February 15. Please allow up to two weeks for a response to allow time for faculty evaluation. Auditions will be accepted until the program is full or the instrument need is met.

Video files (30-60 seconds each)

Video 1: Ensemble playing
Student playing written jazz literature with school ensemble (rehearsal or performance)

Video 2: Improvisation
Student improvising on F or Bb blues in a swing style; 2-3 choruses
Backing tracks are permitted.

Video 3: Optional
Student may submit a third video displaying additional ensemble and/or improvisational skills (should be different repertoire from the first two videos)

We use the platform Submittable to receive all auditions for the Summer Program (a universal platform utilized for exhibitions, contests and even university and job applications). It is very easy to use. You will be prompted to set up a free Submittable account using your email address. This account can be used for any future applications at Idyllwild Arts and beyond!

-Complete an online Camper application through CampInTouch.

-Once you have completed the Camper Application, your application will be reviewed within 5 days by a member of the Enrollment team. At this time, you will be charged the $50 application fee and receive an email with a link to the Submittable audition application for you to submit your audition.

-Complete the Submittable audition application and provide an email address for your teacher recommendation form within Submittable.

Idyllwild Arts cannot provide individual instruments or personal equipment.

Please be sure to bring:
-Your personal instrument, marked with your name. Rhythm section players should bring instruments unless you are flying to Idyllwild and transporting the equipment is not possible.
-Your own folding music stand
-Extra strings, reeds, valve oil, and other necessary accessories for your instrument

Required Attire:
-Casual dress for all concerts
-Collared shirt or blouse (short sleeve is fine)
-Long slacks or dresses/skirts below the knee

A typical day starts off with a morning of classes, taught by acclaimed jazz performers and educators.

At 9:00am, students may attend classes in music theory, while more advanced students attend classes in arranging and composing, which culminates in performances of student work.

At 10:00, students attend master classes on their specific instruments, where specific playing techniques are discussed in detail.

At 11:00, students stay with their instrument groupings, but shift emphasis to Jazz Improvisation; under the guidance of their instructors, students play improvised solos every day.

After lunch, the emphasis shifts to ensemble rehearsals, with the faculty becoming directors; Large Ensemble (big band or Latin-jazz ensemble) and Small Ensemble (combos) occur throughout the afternoon. Students are placed in ensembles according to their ability and experience (determined by an audition on the first day of camp).

The instrument breakdown listed below is a projection of the intended enrollment for the program. Actual enrollment may vary slightly from this at the faculty’s discretion. The instrument listing is for the purposes of a student’s primary assignment in a large ensemble; there is flexibility as to what a student would play in a master class or combo.

Drums | 4
Bass (Upright/Electric) | 4
Guitar | 4
Piano/Keyboard | 4
Alto Sax | 4
Tenor Sax | 3
Bari Sax | 1
Trombone | 4
Bass Trombone | 1
Trumpet | 5

Tom Hynes (Auxiliary Jazz Chair/Guitar) is an educator, guitarist and composer. Tom is a full time Professor of Music at Azusa Pacific University, and also serves on the faculties of Idyllwild Arts Academy and St. Catherine’s Academy. Credits include Hubert Laws, Liza Minelli, Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, and the US Department of State. He has composed music for the Smithsonian Institute and the Orange County Museum of Art. Jazz recordings include The Sun Shop and Tom Hynes and Marshall Hawkins: Live at The Fret House.

GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, trumpeter, and visionary bandleader John Daversa grew up in Los Angeles in a musical household, where he passionately sang and played various instruments from a very young age, eventually picking up the trumpet.Throughout the 1990’s, Daversa continued to be recognized as one of the jazz world’s most promising young performers and composers, winning the National Trumpet Competition, the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Soloist Competition, and the David Joel Miller Award for Composition and Performance, and placing as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Trumpet Competition. As an active member of the Los Angeles musical milieu, he performed and/or recorded with Fiona Apple, Burt Bacharach, Dori Caymi, André Crouch, Dr. Dre, Herbie Hancock, the Bob Mintzer Big Band, Regina Spektor, and the Yellowjackets, and played on various television and film soundtracks. In 2013 Daversa was offered a position as Chair of Studio Music and Jazz at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami. Within his role as professor and chair, he has aimed to create a space for an inclusive environment, encouraging collaboration, imagination, creativity, and free thinking. Daversa’s most recent project, All Without Words: Variations Inspired By Loren (release April 30, 2021) is a lush orchestral trumpet concerto played by the John Daversa Jazz Orchestra, composed by Daversa’s friend Justin Morell, and dedicated to Morell’s autistic son Loren. Celebrating the bond between a parent and child, the album is a paean to the trials, tribulations, successes and heart-warming moments of raising a non-verbal son. Daversa is dedicated to creating meaningful, honest music with positive intention.

A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Alex McLaughlin began study of double bass at the age of 19 while completing an undergraduate degree in Music Therapy and Psychology (Mercyhurst University, 2015) and continued study of double bass at Cincinnati Conservatory (CCM, MM, 2018). Afterward, Alex served as a teaching assistant in both double bass and jazz studies at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) (MMus 2022). While a teaching assistant, Alex directed Outer Dimensions Big Band (including a workshop residency with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), coached jazz combos, co-taught courses in improvisation and jazz theory, assisted students with proficiencies in jazz piano, and maintained a studio of undergraduate bassists. His study also includes the Chautauqua Institution’s Music School Festival Orchestra (CHQ) (2018, 2019), James VanDemark’s Double Bass Intensive (2020, 2021), and Brevard Music Center’s Jazz Institute (2019, 2022) where he recently fulfilled the role of assistant under Rodney Whitaker and Michael Dease.

Dr. Marshall Hawkins (bass/rhythm section) was fortunate to know from an early age that he was meant to be a musician. In 1964, Marshall decided to pick up the bass – and the rest is history. His first professional performance was with Betty Gray, the great Blues singer and pianist. In his mid-20s, Shirley Horn, the amazing Jazz vocalist, chose Marshall as her bassist – her youngest ever. He played with Shirley for almost five years, and then another life-changing opportunity presented itself.

In the late 60s, Marshall joined the Miles Davis quintet (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Tony Williams) and toured throughout the United States. In 1971, Marshall organized the Marshall Hawkins Quintet and played in the Washington D.C. area until the late 70s when another opportunity appeared. Eddie Jefferson (the innovator of “vocalese”) invited Marshall to come to California to be his bassist. From this gig, Marshall was chosen to tour internationally with saxophonist Richie Cole. In the 90s, Marshall’s musical collaborators included Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Pharaoh Sanders, the Manhattan Transfer, and other Jazz greats. In 1978, Marshall moved to Idyllwild, California, home of the internationally famous high school for the arts. In 1986, he founded the Jazz program at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, serving as the head of the Jazz Department until his retirement. In addition to teaching Jazz as an art form, Marshall has mentored hundreds of talented young people who he still considers to be “his kids.”

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