The New Jersey Jazz Academy

Spring 2026 Registration Is Open

Students in grades 7-12 are invited to join the next session of the New Jersey Jazz Academy! While no audition is required, students must have at least 2 years experience playing their instrument and should also have excellent sight reading skills. Spots are limited for certain instruments and once an instrument section has filled, it will be taken off the registration form.

Rehearsals take place in the first floor recital room at Elefante Music in New Providence on the following Thursdays:

DATES
February 26 – Meet and Greet/Sectional Rehearsal
March 5, 12, 19, 26 April 2, 16, 23 & 30 – Full Rehearsals
No rehearsal April 9

A final performance will be at Kean University’s Enlow Recital Hall on May 7th at 7:30 PM.
Other performances TBD

TIME
7:00pm – 8:45pm

REQUIREMENTS
Students in grades 7-12 with at least 2 years playing experience

PRICE
$350

INSTRUMENTS (Limited spots)
alto, tenor, or baritone saxophone; trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, bass, drum set/percussion, flute/piccolo, vibraphone, xylophone, vocals

LOCATION
Elefante Music – 1790 Springfield Ave, New Providence NJ

Stream past concerts

Meet the Instructors

Vinnie Turturiello is a Grammy-nominated music educator. His Scotch Plains-Fanwood jazz band, The Moonglowers, has taken top honors in the NJ Association for Jazz Education’s Division II competition in 2014, 2015, and 2016. He is an adjunct professor at Kean University and Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Al Elefante, founder of Elefante Music, studied at Kings College and the Manhattan School of Music. He studied clarinet with Charles Passhaus, Charles Russo, and Leon Russianoff.

He is a fixture of the local jazz community and performs regularly with his band Elefante & Green.

He opened Elefante Music in 1996 where he continues to teach private lessons in New Providence.

Dave Heilman studied at New Jersey City University. He is co-founder of nationally touring synth-pop group Jupiter One, which signed a two-album deal with Warner Music Group. The group recently appeared on the finale of FX’s Pose. He has over 10 years of experience teaching privately. Dave mentored on Norway’s The Voice and served as a clinician for jazz ensembles at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. His Broadway performances include Swing!, Spring Awakening, American Idiot, Burn the Floor, and STOMP. He also collaborated and recorded with Grammy-nominated artists Regina Spektor, Lars Vaular, Bernhoft, and Sondre Lerche and has performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with David Letterman.

Joe Mosello is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied and performed with Chuck Mangione. Joe toured and recorded as lead trumpet with the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band in Washington, D.C.

Joe was selected to perform, record, and tour with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. He is a veteran of dozens of Broadway shows, and is an 11-year member of the Tony Awards Orchestra. He played lead trumpet with big bands in New York City, including 25 years with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. Joe performed with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Julie Andrews, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Jerry Lewis, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and Blood Sweat and Tears, among others, and has two gold records, for Maynard Ferguson’s recording of “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky, and for “Solid” by Ashford and Simpson. Joe was lead trumpet and music coordinator for Aretha Franklin when she performed in the New York City area.

Joe is a professor in the jazz department at Rutgers University. He also teaches trumpet students, and is a consultant with many high school jazz ensembles and serves as a Jupiter trumpet performing artist.