August 4, 2022

News Release

Ingrid Jensen is Appointed Dean of Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music

Having been named Interim Associate Dean and Director (and subsequently Interim Dean) of Jazz Arts in July 2020, the critically acclaimed trumpeter and educator has successfully led MSM’s prestigious jazz division through two years marked by a global pandemic. She assumes the role of Dean of Jazz Arts effective immediately.

Photo above: Jimmy Katz

NEW YORK, August 4, 2022 – Renowned international music conservatory Manhattan School of Music (MSM) announced today that critically acclaimed trumpeter and educator Ingrid Jensen has been appointed Dean of the School’s prestigious Jazz Arts division, effective immediately. In July 2020, following the departure of former Associate Dean and Director of Jazz Arts Stefon Harris and in the midst of the early, lockdown days of COVID-19, Ms. Jensen – who had joined the MSM faculty two years earlier – assumed leadership of the jazz division on an interim basis. Now, having successfully led the division for two years, Ms. Jensen, one of the most gifted jazz trumpeters of her generation, steps into the role of Dean.

“Ingrid’s superb and present leadership as Interim Dean of MSM’s jazz division over the past two years – during which the international global health crisis made for such uncertainty – galvanized faculty and students and fostered an environment characterized by generosity of spirit and artistic excellence,” says MSM President James Gandre. “We are absolutely thrilled that she has accepted the role of Dean of Jazz Arts.”

Ms. Jensen, who was appointed to the MSM Jazz Arts faculty in 2018 and became the division’s Interim Associate Dean and Director in 2020 (and subsequently Interim Dean), has ably demonstrated her strong commitment to building on MSM Jazz Arts’ vision of excellence, community, and diversity. Balancing a deep range of artistry that has brought her to the front ranks of jazz performance globally and an extensive career as educator, she is a strong role model for both students and colleagues.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be taking on this new role at MSM,” says Ms. Jensen. “I joined MSM’s faculty at the beginning of the institution’s centennial year. Four years later, it is a singular honor and privilege to lead MSM’s legendary jazz division. I look forward to welcoming the incoming class later this summer!”

Executive Vice President and Provost Joyce Griggs says that in considering who would ultimately lead MSM’s Jazz Arts division, “we did not have to look any further than the very person who had so expertly led the division over the course of the past two years. Ingrid has been a stabilizing and inspiring force, someone who shares and continues to build on the School’s collective values of community and artistic excellence. She is also someone who can lead by example and support our students as they pursue their artistic development.”

For further information, please contact Jeff Breithaupt, Vice President for Media and Communications, at jbreithaupt@msmnyc.edu or (917) 493-4702.

ABOUT INGRID JENSEN

Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, MSM Dean of Jazz Arts Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene.

After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties – as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria – Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994–2012) and Darcy James Argue (2002–present). More recently, Ingrid has performed with the Grammy-winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project, Helen Sung’s Sung with Words project, and, more recently, the highly acclaimed all-star ensemble Artemis.

Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno-award-winning album Treelines (2011) and its successor Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding; Ingrid has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. In addition to her busy sideman and featured-soloist schedule, Jensen leads her own quintet, quartet, and organ trio. Her own bands have garnered glowing reviews and earned her a loyal fan base around the globe.

Jensen is also a dedicated jazz educator, having taught trumpet at the University of Michigan and Peabody Conservatory, performing and lecturing as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock, and performing and teaching at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, The Dave Brubeck Institute, the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and the Stanford Jazz Camp and the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for young women. She is currently on faculty at both Purchase College and Manhattan School of Music (where she was recently appointed the Dean of Jazz Arts).

Since her victory at the Carmine Caruso Trumpet Competition in 1995, Jensen has since sat on the judges’ panel twice for said competition. She is regularly invited to trumpet festivals around the world and recently served as Artist-in-Residence at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival, performing with her own quintet and giving tribute to the great Geri Allen, with fellow Artist-in-Residence Tia Fuller.

One of Ingrid’s most frequent and closest collaborators is her sister, saxophonist, and composer Christine Jensen. The sisters release Infinitude, featuring guitarist Ben Monder, received heavy praise from the Jazz Community as did Ingrid’s latest recording Invisible  Sounds.  The album, honoring the late great Kenny Wheeler, received critical acclaim and led to a feature on NPR’s Jazz Night in America hosted by Christian McBride.

Ingrid was chosen as the 2019 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Trumpeter-of-the-Year award.

Ingrid plays a custom Monette trumpet, built personally by the master builder Dave Monette.

ABOUT MSM JAZZ ARTS

Manhattan School of Music was one of the first conservatories in the United States to acknowledge the importance of jazz as an art form by establishing undergraduate and graduate degree programs in jazz. The program is one of the richest of its kind, combining systematic and rigorous conservatory training with a myriad of performance and networking opportunities in New York City. In addition to a variety of small combos, student ensembles include the LatinX Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra, and the Jazz Philharmonic. The program is under the leadership of Dean of Jazz Arts and jazz trumpet faculty member Ingrid Jensen.

In addition to studies with a faculty drawn from the highest ranks of the jazz world, students are provided opportunities to play for and observe world-renowned guest artists. Master classes in recent years have been presented by MSM trustee Terence Blanchard (trumpet), Billy Childs (piano, composition), Buster Williams (bass), Ron Carter (bass), Christian Scott (trumpet), Barry Harris (piano), alumnus Stefon Harris (vibraphone), Maria Schneider (composition), Vijay Iyer (piano), Jason Moran (MM ’97) (piano), Christian McBride (bass), Jimmy Heath (tenor saxophone), faculty member Jon Faddis (trumpet), Gary Burton (vibraphone), and Wycliffe Gordon (trombone).

Every concert season, prominent guest artists are featured with our large ensembles, providing enriched performance experiences for students. Guest artists have included Omar Thomas, Jim McNeely, Jane Monheit, Candido, Dave Liebman, Randy Weston, Joe Lovano, Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera, and alumnus Miguel Zenón.

ABOUT MSM

Founded as a community music school by Janet Daniels Schenck in 1918, today Manhattan School of Music is recognized for its more than 985 superbly talented undergraduate and graduate students who come from more than 50 countries and nearly all 50 states; its innovative curricula and world-renowned artist-teacher faculty that includes musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Met Orchestra, and the top ranks of the jazz and Broadway communities; and a distinguished community of accomplished, award-winning alumni working at the highest levels of the musical, educational, cultural, and professional worlds.

The School is dedicated to the personal, artistic, and intellectual development of aspiring musicians, from its Precollege students through those pursuing doctoral studies. Offering classical, jazz, and musical theatre training, MSM grants a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees. True to MSM’s origins as a music school for children, the Precollege program continues to offer superior music instruction to 475 young musicians between the ages of 5 and 18. The School also serves some 2,000 New York City schoolchildren through its Arts-in-Education Program, and another 2,000 students through its critically acclaimed Distance Learning Program.