UConn's rigorous, performance-oriented program encourages students to study the music of past generations while consciously striving to create music which is relevant to today. 

Jazz groups at UConn have placed first in competitions at the Villanova and Elmhurst jazz competitions, performed at major jazz festivals and educational conferences, and have garnered favorable reviews for their CD, UConn Jazz.

UConn is committed to hiring accomplished faculty members who are identified as major creative forces on the international music scene. Because the Music (Jazz Studies) at University of Connecticut is small and selective, faculty members know students personally and show a genuine interest and concern for their musical development. 

Renowned guest jazz artists appear at UConn annually, offering clinics and performing with the UConn Jazz Ensemble, student combos, jazz faculty ensembles, and as performers at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. These artists include trumpeters Michael Phillip Mossman, Marvin Stamm, Tom Harrell, Joe Magnarelli and Randy Brecker, saxophonists Michael Brecker, Ralph Bowen, Tim Ries, Dick Oatts, Jerry Bergonzi and James Moody, trombonists Steve Davis, John Mosca and John Fedchock, pianists Cedar Walton and Herbie Hancock, bassists Dave Santoro, Dwayne Burno and Peter Washington, and drummers Tom Melito, Jim Oblon and Lewis Nash.