Berkeley’s Jazzschool Appoints Lisa Mezzacappa as Executive Director

Berkeley-based community education institution The Jazzschool on Tuesday announced Bay Area composer, educator and bassist Lisa Mezzacappa as its new executive director.

“I’m feeling great, excited, nervous and thrilled,” says Mezzacappa, reached by phone.

Mezzacappa plans to listen to the needs of students to add to the “magical” environment that already exists at the school — a place she said she’s fallen in love with over the past five years as an educator at the institution.

“When you’re teaching there at night,” she says, “the place is just so alive and activated by so many different kinds of people, who are kind of giddy with playing music together.”

Mezzacappa refers to the school, housed in a basement in downtown Berkeley, as a “subterranean realm” full of music and community.

“There are drummers looking for cymbals and swapping out their gear,” she says, painting a picture of the place on any given night. “There are people looking for cables, moving amplifiers around, getting vibraphones wheeled in, finding percussion.”

Founded in 1997 by music scholar and jazz pianist Susan Muscarella, the Jazzschool was previously connected to the California Jazz Conservatory (CJC), which offered a program for students to earn bachelors degrees in music. That program came to an end last year.

Mezzacappa, who has also performed at the Jazzschool, says the driving force behind the institution’s appeal — beyond music — is its outstanding staff and the community of artists who gravitate to its classrooms.

With year-round classes offered on a quarterly basis for both adults and youth, the school teaches various styles, from Latin jazz to Brazilian funk.

Beyond acquiring technical expertise, Mezzacappa describes an added draw of the school: people often spend years at the Jazzschool, and connect “on that really interpersonal level through music.”

An avant-garde jazz artist who has a long resumé of playing gigs all over the Bay Area and beyond, Mezzacappa holds nothing back when it comes advocating for the art form.

“I think jazz should be part of every conversation,” she says, noting that she’s even open to exploring the ways technological advancements are impacting one of this country’s oldest genres of music. “We can’t run away from new technology,” she attests. “We have to see what students are interested in.”

Her first assignment, as she takes the helm of the nearly thirty year-old institution, is the school’s fall Youth & Adult Student Performance Series. An annual showcase that runs Dec. 5–16, it features nearly 400 students from different levels, playing different styles of jazz.

The showcase doubles as a way of expanding community. Many people bring friends and loved ones, Mezzacappa said, who may eventually get involved and become part of a new crop of talented musicians.

“If you’re curious about dusting off your guitar, or the keyboard that’s been in your garage,” offers Mezzacappa, “and you’re like, ‘Maybe I wanna take a class,’ it’s a good chance to see what happens here.”

The Jazzschool’s Fall Youth & Adult Student Performance Series features several free concerts from Dec. 5–16 at the Jazzschool (2087 Addison Street, Berkeley). More event information here.