Dr. JB Dyas has been a pioneering force in jazz education for over three decades. Currently Vice President for Education and Curriculum Development at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, Dyas oversees the Institute's education and outreach programs including
Jazz in America, one of the most significant and wide-reaching jazz education programs in the world. He has led jazz workshops, teacher-training seminars, and "informances"
(educational performances) across the globe, collaborating with such
renowned artists as Ambrose Akinmusire, Don Braden, Bobby Broom, Dave
Brubeck, Gerald Clayton, Robin Eubanks, Herbie Hancock, Antonio Hart,
Marquis Hill, Ingrid Jensen, Sean Jones, Delfeayo Marsalis, Christian
McBride, Dayna Stephens, Bobby Watson, and Steve Wilson.
Before joining the Hancock Institute, Dyas served as Executive Director
of the Brubeck Institute, where he developed and launched its College
Fellowship Program, Brubeck Festival, Summer Jazz Colony, and Jazz
Outreach Initiative. Prior to that, he was Director of Jazz Studies at
Miami-Dade College – one of the nation’s largest and most diverse
educational institutions – and New World School of the Arts – Miami’s
acclaimed performing arts high school.
Throughout his career, Dyas has performed nationwide, developed
innovative jazz curricula, directed ensembles of all sizes, and taught
jazz to students of every level – age eight to eighty, beginner to
professional, learning-challenged to prodigy. His work has taken him to
six continents, where he has conducted clinics, adjudicated jazz
festivals, and led teacher-training workshops in Australia, Canada,
Colombia, Cuba, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, Turkey,
United Arab Emirates, and across the United States. He also teaches
Jazz Pedagogy at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at
UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, serves as an advisor for the PBS
Kids animated series
Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band, and is a member of the GRAMMY Blue Ribbon Committee which annually selects the winner of the GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year Award.
A prolific writer and thought leader in jazz education, Dyas has contributed numerous
articles to
DownBeat
magazine and other national music publications, presented at over a
dozen International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) and Jazz
Education Network (JEN) Conferences, co-founded the International
Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Competition, and served on the Smithsonian
Institution’s Task Force for Jazz Education in America. He also has
taught at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop and other premier
summer jazz programs, contributed the chapter “Defining Jazz Education”
to the biography
David Baker - A Legacy in Music, and developed a widely used series of
teacher-training jazz pedagogy videos.
Dyas recently introduced his “What is Jazz and Why It’s Important to the World” lecture for
International Jazz Day, for which he annually presents education events all over the world in conjunction with the Hancock Institute and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He also has led numerous jazz informances at the US Department of Education highlighting the importance of music education in our public schools, including a
national webinar with jazz great Herbie Hancock and US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona which has now had over 500,000 views on YouTube.
