Thelonious Monk Institute: Jazz’s First Conservatory

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the first music conservatory devoted exclusively to jazz, will be affiliated with Duke University and located in Durham, it was announced Monday by Durham Mayor Wib Gulley, Duke President H. Keith H. Brodie, Thelonious Monk Jr. and other institute officials.

Thomas Carter, executive director of the institute, said it will “create an educational, cultural and performance-based environment for young developing jazz musicians who will solidify and extend the philosophy and appreciation of jazz music into the next century.”

The institute will offer a practical and theoretical music curriculum. A carefully selected group of students will study a wide range of courses on a full-time basis with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Jones, Wynton Marsalis and Clark Terry who, as chairman of the institute’s academic council, will help choose the curriculum.

Plans for the institute include a $12-million facility and dorm--to be located near downtown Durham’s growing arts center--and a $50 million endowment. Programs offered by the institute are expected to include the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and summer jazz workshops. The institute will operate student exchange programs with Duke.

Thelonious Monk Jr., chairman of the project, said he views the establishment of the institute as a step toward “collectively carrying on the sincere commitment that Thelonious Monk made to young musicians. It is historically appropriate that the institute be located in Durham, and affiliated with Duke, for Thelonious was born less than 100 miles away in Rocky Mount, North Carolina,” he said.

“Also, Paul Jeffrey, who played in my father’s band, is director of jazz studies at Duke.” (Jeffrey has been named co-chairman of the institute’s academic council.)

The institute has received the support and sponsorship of the Beethoven Society of America, which with the Thelonious Sphere Monk Foundation of New York City is spearheading an international fund-raising drive for the institute.

Monk, who died in 1982, began his career as a pianist but also became well known for his unique style as a band leader and as an innovative jazz composer.