Institute for Creative Music

The Institute for Creative Music (IfCM) is a 501c3 non-profit operating in Denton, Texas. All ages, instrument/voice-types, and experience levels,  are welcome to join us for workshops, camps, group lessons, and performances that feature jazz and creative music. Come learn and play with our teaching artists in the Denton Jazz Workshops (ages 11+), Creative Music Kids (ages 0-12) and participate in a performance workshop with the IfCM Collective.

The Institute for Creative Music (IfCM) was formed in 2011 by co-directors Chris Teal and Nick Finzer with the mission of building a fresh model for contemporary jazz education through integrative learning and performance experiences. The organization expanded to include a team of eight Teaching Artists who collaborated to present participatory, jazz-focused residencies, concerts, and workshops at schools, universities, and community centers. Assisted by a six-member board of directors and interns from the Eastman School of Music, Princeton University, and the University of Cambridge, the IfCM continued to build its capacity to offer performances and educational experiences.

Educational workshops that emphasize participation, creativity, and improvisation are at the core of the IfCM mission, and the organization has been offering these workshops since its inception. In addition to events near the IfCM’s origins in New York State, Teaching Artists traveled to Montana and Washington in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2022 thanks to the support of Plum Creek Great Classrooms grants to work with middle and high school students. These residencies brought workshops on improvisation, songwriting, recording technology, student leadership, and aural learning into dozens of classrooms as well as after school and weekend camps.

The IfCM began operating in Arkansas when Co-Director Chris Teal moved to Fayetteville in 2016. In collaboration with the University of Arkansas Community Music School, the IfCM has presented regular programming including semester-long jazz workshops for youth and adults, outreach workshops at area primary and secondary schools, Creative Jazz Fundamentals video course curriculum, summer camps, and the Fayetteville Jazz Festival. The Creative Jazz Fundamentals video curriculum (www.creativejazzfundamentals.com) replicates the experience of participating in a live workshop where students can learn jazz songs, style, and improvisation by ear and has been utilized for teaching and at-home practice in the IfCM jazz workshops, University of Arkansas improvisation courses and combos, and the first fully virtual summer camp in 2020. The IfCM operated school-year jazz workshops and summer camps at the University of Arkansas from 2016-2021 and founded and operated the Fayetteville Jazz Festival (2019, 2020, 2021). In 2021 the IfCM hosted the first “Certified Apprentice Teacher'' training program as a part of their week-long Creative Music Camp at the University of Arkansas.

IfCM Director Chris Teal and his family relocated to Denton from Fayetteville, AR in summer 2021. After two years of researching music education methods, developing curriculum, and researching educational needs in Denton and the surrounding area, the Institute for Creative Music is excited to start a new phase for the organization. By offering a comprehensive schedule of classes and ensembles centered around the principles of Dr. Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT) we will be able to engage students for their musical learning journey from birth through adulthood. While our previous programming in Rochester, NY and Fayetteville, AR utilized elements of Dr. Gordon’s MLT in jazz performance workshops for musicians ages 11 and older, we see a need to add this type of education for early childhood (ages 0-4) and elementary age (5-12) students. Children learn best when they learn music in a similar way that they learn their native language, that is to develop listening, speaking, thinking, reading, and writing vocabularies in that specific order. By centering IfCM learning methods with Dr. Gordon’s concept of developing musical audiation (the ability to think music in the mind with understanding) IfCM teaching artists can prepare students for lifelong understanding and love of music. 

After establishing the Denton Jazz Workshops (DJW) in the fall of 2022 with Grace Frarey, Teal started this next phase of organizational growth in the spring of 2023 with Creative Music Kids (CMK) programming. CMK currently offers Family Music Classes (ages 0-4) and Group Piano Classes (5-7), and individual & group lessons for piano, drums, guitar, clarinet, trombone, and saxophone.