What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing Jazz Studies at Concordia?
CT: It’s definitely a lifestyle and something you’re going to put a lot of hours into — it’s not just something that you can turn off once you get home. Part of being an artist means you always carry it with you — it’s an identifier.
When you have this thing that you’re nurturing, and then somebody tells you it’s not good enough or it could be better, it’s really hard to take. But you need to be prepared to have your work criticized.
How do you deal with this criticism? How did you manage to keep going?
CT: I remind myself that this is something I enjoy doing. In my jazz studies classes, I’m the only Indigenous student. It’s a big transition going into post-secondary education; it hasn’t been a normal thing for Indigenous people to be allowed to participate in a post-secondary forum.
Some people have the means for professional teachers as they’re growing up. They have resources that just aren’t available to a lot of people in Indigenous communities because there are just so many other pressing issues.
But I’d say if it’s something that you truly appreciate and want to succeed in, then by all means, go for it. If you do, you also make it easier for someone else to participate. You’re making more representation. When I’m done, I want to be a role model for other people pursuing academic music.
Where do you see yourself after you graduate?
CT: I play and study the upright bass — and I’m trying hard to be a composer. That’s really my raison d’être with music, to be a creator. But that’s such a huge task to take on, because you’re adding to this whole history of music that you don’t want to water down. My short-term plan is to be a working musician, and that’s going to be a task within itself. Montreal is such an epicentre of music — there’s so much great talent here.
As soon as I got to the city, a teacher introduced me to a jazz bass player named Oscar Pettiford and he’s become my favourite musician because he was also Indigenous. I started digging through and finding a history of First Nations people in jazz music and it was so much more extensive than I thought, but it’s also so buried in there.
As Jeremy Dutcher said when he was receiving his Juno Award, we’re in a renaissance for Indigenous people. And I truly believe that there are so many more resources for people to be artists now or to succeed in any field.
People ask me regularly to help them with their auditions and show them what they could do to succeed. I feel glad to help any prospective student because it’s something that means so much to me for other people to participate in this.
Find out more about Concordia’s Specialization in Jazz Studies.
Prospective Indigenous students can also learn more about studying at Concordia.