April 2, 2007

Robert Klevan honored with 2007 California Music Education Award

Music lecturer Robert Klevan has received the California Music Education Association's (CMEA) 2007 Otter Distributor Jazz Education Award. The award is presented each year to a jazz educator in California to honor "excellence in jazz education and performance."

Robert Klevan

Now in his ninth year as director of the UCSC Wind Ensemble, Klevan also directs the UCSC Large Jazz Ensemble and teaches an Introduction to Music Education course. After a 27-year career as music director and director of fine arts at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, he was appointed as jazz education director for the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2002. Under Klevan's leadership, the educational programs of the Monterey Jazz Festival have steadily grown over the past five years.

Klevan was named CMEA Educator of the Year and received the McNeely Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992, and was also honored by the Monterey Jazz Festival as Jazz Educator of the Year for 2003-04. His articles on music teaching have been published in the Jazz Education Journal, The Instrumentalist, Journal for Texas Music Education Research, and the Monterey County Herald.