Explore new facets of your artistry and improvisation through ensemble rehearsal and performance. With ensembles recast each semester, one semester you might be playing in the Electric Miles Davis directed by a musician like Adam Holzman, who played with Miles in the 1980s. The next semester you might play in the Studio Orchestra, collaborating with Mannes School of Music performers in our largest ensemble, directed by a legendary musician like Ingrid and Christine Jensen or Darcy James Argue.
In addition to more than eighty established ensembles, you can create your own — choose the type of music you want to make, the musicians you want to play with, and the directors you want as your mentors.
Make Your Ensemble
Each semester, you will participate in an improv ensemble. Ensembles recast each semester, allowing you to choose the type of music you want to make, the musicians you want to play with, and the directors you want as your mentors.
Elective Ensembles
Make any of our fifty elective ensembles your own. Elective ensembles include:
Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra
Americana Ensemble
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Ensemble
Brazilian Drum Ensemble
Brazilian Ensemble
Carnival Caravan Ensemble
Charles Mingus Ensemble
Charlie Parker Ensemble
Chick Corea Ensemble
Electric Miles Davis Ensemble
Gospel Chorus
Guitar Duos
Herbie Hancock Ensemble
Indian Ensemble
John Coltrane Ensemble
John Zorn's Cobra Ensemble
Live Electronica Orchestra
New York City Composers Ensemble
Ornette Coleman Ensemble
Progressive Rock Ensemble
R & B Ensemble
Sonny Rollins Ensemble
Standards Ensemble
Sun Ra Orchestra
Super Trios
Thelonious Monk Ensemble
The New School Studio Orchestra
Vocal Blues Ensemble
Wayne Shorter Ensemble