The UNC Jazz Workshop brings a lot of interesting and unique students to the program in order to immerse them in a Jazz music-making experience. Some perform while some report on the week of music making. One such student is Danielle Gladstone.
Danielle is a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally from Smithtown, New York, she is in the final year of her biology degree and is also seeking a music minor.
Danielle is attending the workshop this year under the Journalism and Jazz History track. When asked why she decided to take the Jazz Workshop this summer, she said it was, “primarily the [Experiential Education] credit” but that she also liked the musical genre of Jazz.
Her favorite part of the workshop so far is learning about the history of Jazz. Danielle said, “I learned a lot in a short amount of time. Professor Davis is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about jazz and making sure we understand Jazz’s impact today.”
One thing she looks forward to getting out of the remaining time is to see more of the combo lessons. She explained to me that there was a lot of overwhelming sound that she experienced in the Piano specific group lessons. “There’s a lot of sound, and it’s overwhelming.” Danielle was told by Professor Anderson that that’s just part of the music making process, is the creativity and the chaos. Danielle told me she’d like to see more of that and more of how that translates to the stage and performing.
Danielle sees herself as a very creative person saying, “It’s so challenging to be a specialist when you see the value in your own [hobbies] and so on.” Danielle likes to sing and has experience dancing and composing music. When not in class during the summer, she finds herself hanging out with her family or playing Breath of the Wild.
Danielle has a job in the form of her internship with the Marsico Lung Institute at the UNC School of Medicine, dealing with lung diseases and cystic fibrosis. During the next summer session she plans on taking Spanish 203 to get her language electives knocked out before finishing this year.