Education

Since the mid-1970s Kevin Norton has been involved in the education field, beginning as private drum instructor to younger fellow students at Hunter College in New York City. (Kevin earned his Bachelor’s Degree from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program (Hunter College) and his Master’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music).

Kevin was honored to be asked by the legendary Milt Hinton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milt_Hinton) to be one of his assistants in his Jazz Workshop classes at Hunter College (and later Baruch College) in the mid-1970s through the 1980s. In 1998 Kevin became part of the esteemed faculty of the Jazz Studies Program at William Paterson University(http://www.wpunj.edu/coac/departments/music/faculty/faculty_jazz.dot). Because Kevin had been playing with an “avant-garde” artist like Anthony Braxton besides Milt Hinton, he was in a unique position at WPU to advise students from both traditional and avant-garde experiences. In fact, Kevin Norton has become a much sought-after professor at WPU and in particular his classes about the intersection of contemporary composition and free improvisation are always well attended. He also gives private lessons in vibraphone, drum-set, composition, improvisation and general musicianship. In the “spring semesters” of 2004 and 2012, Kevin worked as the “Interim Program Coordinator of Jazz Studies”, in essence substituting for Dr David Demsey and proving he is an effective and valuable administrator as well as a creative music professor.

Kevin has also taught younger musicians during the summer season at Camp Encore/Coda (http://www.encore-coda.com/) in Sweden, Maine since 2006. Besides teaching percussion instruments, jazz drumming and coaching various ensembles he has taught a popular history course (of his own development) called “Music of the 1960s”.

Kevin also teaches younger students at the Dwight-Englewood School (in Englewood, N.J.) (http://www.d-e.org/) and The Thurnauer School of Music (http://www.jccotp.org/thurnauer-school-of-music).

Because Kevin has taught at both the university and middle-school levels, he is particularly well suited for preparing students who want to apply for college jazz studies programs across the USA. In fact, Kevin has helped high-school students get into: NYU, The Peabody Institute (of John Hopkins University), William Paterson University, Temple University and University of the Arts  (Philadelphia) amongst others. Beyond that, Kevin has helped his university students get into graduate programs at The Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory amongst others. See below to read testimonials from former (or current) students of Kevin Norton.

Choosing a teacher is can be a very important decision, please feel free to converse with Kevin here (kevinnorton56@gmail.com).