Juilliard School -- Fall 2025 Schedule¶
[In-universe document: Charlie's course schedule for his first semester at Juilliard.]
Student: Carlos Santiago Rivera Email: carlos.rivera@juilliard.edu Classification: Freshman Major: Jazz Studies, B.M. (Saxophone) Semester: Fall 2025 Total Credits: 22
Course Schedule¶
| Course # | Course Name | Credits | Instructor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JUILL 101 | Discover Juilliard | 1 | [TBD] | Freshman orientation course. First week included welcome address from Wynton Marsalis. |
| [Major Studies] | Saxophone -- Private Instruction | 5 | [TBD -- one of Ron Blake, Dan Block, Bruce Williams] | 15 one-hour lessons per semester. The reason I'm here. |
| PFENS 511J | Juilliard Jazz Orchestra | 1 | Jerome Jennings (conductor) | Full big band. Rehearsals [TBD day/time]. Every jazz student, every semester, all four years. |
| PFENS 521J | Jazz Ensemble | 2 | [TBD] | Small combo. This is where it gets real -- five or six people in a room figuring out how to breathe together. |
| ETMUS 111 | Ear Training I | 2 | [TBD] | Intervals, dictation, sight-singing. Classical ear training, not jazz-specific. Shared with classical students. |
| THMUS 111J | Jazz Theory I | 3 | [TBD -- Mossman or Smither] | Melody, rhythm, foundational jazz harmony. Different track from classical Theory I (Diatonic Harmony). |
| MHMUS 111J | Jazz History I | 3 | [TBD -- Hadley, Schoenberg, or Washington] | The tradition. Where it comes from, who built it, who got erased from the story. |
| JZMUS 500 | Creative Ideas | 1 | [TBD] | Runs all seven semesters of undergrad. Composition, creative process, artistic identity. The course that asks who you are, not just what you can play. |
| KSMUS 540J | Jazz Piano I for Non-Pianists | 1 | [TBD] | Required 2 years. Learning keyboard for composition and voicing work, not performance. Explains everything about the keyboard in the apartment. |
| JZMUS 100R | Doubles for Saxophonists | 0 | Mark Vinci | Flute. Integrated with major studies. Every professional jazz saxophonist doubles -- this is where that starts. |
| LARTS 111 | Foundations of Knowledge | 3 | [TBD] | Liberal arts requirement. The part where they remind you that musicians should also read books. |
| TOTAL | 22 |
Why This Schedule¶
Twenty-two credits looks insane on paper. It's less insane when you understand that conservatory credits don't map onto regular university credits -- five of those credits are private saxophone lessons and ensemble rehearsals, which is just playing music with structure around it. The academic load is really Jazz Theory, Jazz History, Ear Training, Liberal Arts, and Creative Ideas. Still heavy. Still more than most eighteen-year-olds carry. But this is Juilliard -- the entire point is that it's more than most people can sustain.
The Jazz Studies BM accepts approximately seven to nine jazz instrumentalists per year across all instruments. That's the entire incoming jazz freshman class. Charlie, Peter, Riley, and Ezra (sophomore) are in the same Jazz Theory, Jazz History, Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Orchestra, Creative Ideas, and Jazz Piano for Non-Pianists sections because there simply aren't enough jazz students to split into multiple sections. These aren't lecture halls of two hundred -- these are rooms of fifteen, twenty people. You can't hide. You can't coast. Everyone hears everything you do.
Jacob is the exception. He's in the classical Piano BM track -- different theory (Diatonic Harmony instead of Jazz Theory), different history (Antiquity to 1700 instead of Jazz History), no ensembles freshman year. He and Charlie share an apartment and a life but almost none of their academic schedule. They cross paths in the hallways and the practice rooms and the cafeteria, but their Juilliards are different institutions inside the same building.
The doubles class (flute, with Mark Vinci) begins freshman year. Every professional jazz saxophonist doubles on at least one auxiliary woodwind -- flute, clarinet, or both. Charlie picks up flute. It's a different embouchure, a different relationship with breath, a different instrument that asks different things of a body that already has complicated opinions about what it can sustain.
Jazz Piano for Non-Pianists is why there's a keyboard in every apartment Charlie will ever live in. Two years of learning voicings, comping patterns, and basic keyboard harmony -- not to perform, but to compose, to arrange, to hear the full harmonic picture instead of just the saxophone's line through it. This is the class that turns a player into a writer.
Shared Schedule with Other CRATB Members¶
| Course | Charlie | Peter | Ezra (Soph.) | Riley | Jacob |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jazz Theory I (THMUS 111J) | X | X | -- (took Y1) | X | -- |
| Jazz History I (MHMUS 111J) | X | X | -- (took Y1) | X | -- |
| Ear Training I (ETMUS 111) | X | X | -- (took Y1) | X | X* |
| Jazz Orchestra (PFENS 511J) | X | X | X | X | -- |
| Jazz Ensemble (PFENS 521J) | X | X | X | X | -- |
| Creative Ideas (JZMUS 500) | X | X | X | X | -- |
| Jazz Piano for Non-Pianists | X | X | -- (took Y1) | X | -- |
| Liberal Arts (LARTS 111) | X | X | -- | X | -- |
*Jacob takes classical Ear Training (same ETMUS course number, potentially same section as jazz students or separate).
Ezra is a sophomore -- he took the Year 1 courses in 2024-2025. But he's still in Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, and Creative Ideas because those run all four years. So the freshman jazz cohort plays alongside Ezra in ensembles from day one. Every rehearsal. Every performance. The rivalry doesn't form in a classroom -- it forms in Jazz Ensemble, where Charlie and Ezra are both horn players in the same small combo, both from Puerto Rican backgrounds, both playing with everything they have, and Ezra has a year of Juilliard behind him that Charlie doesn't.
Extracurriculars (Fall 2025)¶
- charlieriveraofficial YouTube channel (ongoing, pre-existing)
- Practice room regular (saxophone, plus flute for doubles)
- Apartment jam sessions with Jacob, Peter (and eventually others)
Key Dates (Fall 2025)¶
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Late August | Move-in day. Meets Jacob Keller (roommate). First time seeing Juilliard as a student, not a Pre-College kid on Saturdays. |
| Late August | Orientation. Wynton Marsalis welcome address. |
| September | Classes begin. First Jazz Ensemble rehearsal -- meets Ezra Cruz (sophomore trumpet). |
| October 30-Nov 1 | Logan Weston visits NYC. Charlie meets Logan in person for the first time. |
| November 2027 | [2027 hospitalization happens Year 2, not Year 1 -- see timeline] |
| December | Final juries (Annual Jury -- faculty assessment of progress). First semester ends. |
Outstanding Requirements (not taken Fall 2025)¶
Deferred to Spring 2026:¶
- JUILL 102: Essentials of Entrepreneurship in the Arts (1 cr)
- THMUS 211J: Jazz Theory II (3 cr)
- ETMUS 112: Ear Training I, continued (2 cr)
- KSMUS 540J: Jazz Piano for Non-Pianists, continued (1 cr)
- LARTS 112: Society, Politics, and Culture (3 cr)
Deferred to Year 2+:¶
- JZMUS 541-542: Jazz Improvisation I and II (Year 2)
- MHMUS 211J-311J: Jazz History II-III (Year 2)
- THMUS 311J-411J: Jazz Theory III-IV (Year 2)
- JZMUS 411-412: Jazz Arranging and Orchestration/Composition (Year 3)
- JZMUS 510-511: Jazz Business I-II (Year 3)
- MHMUS 211, 311: Classical Music History (Year 3) -- yes, jazz students also take classical history
- JZMUS 421: The Jazz Community Project (Year 4)
- Senior Recital (Year 4)
- Year 2 faculty review for program continuation -- the checkpoint that matters for a chronically ill student
Note on Year 2 Review:¶
At the end of Year 2, undergraduate jazz students undergo faculty review to assess suitability for program continuation. For a student whose body fights him every day, whose attendance record tells a story the music contradicts, this review is the institutional version of LaGuardia's academic maintenance requirement -- the same wall, different building.