There's a busy and exciting time ahead for CQCM Lecturer in Jazz Studies Derrin Kerr.

Following his involvement in the 10-day CQCM/ABC Jazz Tour, which kicks off on Saturday June 10 at venues around the state, Derrin will be flying to the University of Louisville Kentucky in the USA to attend the International Association of Schools - Jazz Conference (IASJ).

In attendance will be jazz delegates from universities around the world, all of whom will take an active part in the conference by performing, presenting or learning from their esteemed international colleagues.

According to Derrin, “There are over 100 students, teachers and representatives of schools of jazz from more than 30 countries attending the IASJ conference. The conference is held in a different country each year and the majority of the participants are from outside the USA”.

Derrin will be presenting at the IASJ conference on the 'Uniqueness of the Hamilton Island Project', which involves staff and students of the CQCM performing on Hamilton Island on a regular basis throughout the year. His presentation forms part of his doctoral research into industry-based performance training.

“The students gain a lot from our partnership with Hamilton Island; in particular the opportunity to perform live at various functions and venues around the Island and the opportunity to perform alongside some of the music industry’s great jazz musicians,” said Derrin. “This is a unique partnership and I believe there will be a lot of interest in this concept at the conference”.

Last year, the CQCM was successful in obtaining a visiting scholar grant to bring Mike Tracey out to Mackay from the USA. During his stay in Mackay, Mike performed alongside the CQCM jazz staff and students at the Clarion Hotel Mackay Marina and also accompanied the students to Hamilton Island. Mike was so impressed with the partnership between the CQCM and Hamilton Island that he invited Derrin to the International Conference this year.

“My attendance at the conference is also a brilliant opportunity for two CQCM jazz students who have been selected to accompany me,” said Derrin. “The students, Tim Kirkwood a drummer and Peter McKenzie a saxophonist, are both third-year students and are pretty excited about the trip".

The IASJ Conference is also well timed, as the following week is the ‘Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop’. Jamey Aebersold is one of the world’s largest jazz publishing companies and each year they bring people from across the USA to attend the jazz summer school.

Derrin is planning to use his time in Louisville wisely. As well as attending both the conference and summer school he will be interviewing and surveying some of the leading international jazz educators and performers from across the world and collecting data on their experiences of performance training with jazz education.

Derrin’s academic sojourn has been made possible by grant monies received from the Central Queensland University (CQU) Faculty Research and Postgraduate Committee (Arts, Humanities and Education).

Photo above: CQCM Lecturer Derrin Kerr (left) and CQCM Jazz Studies students Peter McKenzie (centre) and Tim Kirkwood (right) are excited about their 2-week trip to the USA to attend an international jazz conference and summer school.