Background
Currently, the jazz music scene in Thailand has seen continuous growth. The number of listeners, musicians, and composers interested in jazz music is expanding. This includes various activities in the form of a jazz Festival, jazz concerts featuring both domestic and international artists, and recordings from local artists in the jazz style. This expansion has resulted in the expansion of the Thai jazz education system, both in the Thai government university and the Thai private university system, which is reflected in the academic activities in jazz music that focus primarily on educational development, such as organizing jazz competitions, organizing workshops and various jazz seminars. However, in the variety of jazz activities currently taking place in Thailand, there is no concrete link between business and educational development. This can be seen from the fact that the business sector has organized most jazz activities. It has not yet focused on providing society with true knowledge and understanding of jazz. [3]
Therefore, the College of Music, Mahidol University, has organized the “Jazz for Learning Project,” known as the Thailand International Jazz Conference (TIJC). The primary objective is to seriously develop Thailand’s jazz music industry in terms of performance and academics. [2]
The objectives of the Thailand International Jazz Conference (TIJC) include the following:
- To provide an opportunity for those interested in jazz to listen to high-quality jazz by jazz artists accepted by the jazz community nationally and internationally.
- Give those interested an opportunity to study and gain knowledge about jazz in various aspects, such as performance, composition, arrangement, orchestra conducting, listening to music, and many other aspects that will be beneficial to a career in a field related to jazz, from experts in various related fields who are accepted both nationally and internationally.
- To Inspire the Thai youth and new generation musicians to strive to develop themselves in the future as musicians or musical personnel with both the ability and ethics in their careers, with leading professional musicians as role models.
- To spark the expansion of both business and academic activities, leading to beneficial Thai jazz education activities that emphasize the balance between business benefits and educational benefits by other organizations in the future, which will develop the jazz education system in Thailand for sustainable progress. [2]