Robert Klevan
A graduate summa cum laude from the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific, Robert B. Klevan pursued his graduate studies at DePaul University in Chicago, and at UOP where he received a Masters of Music Degree. In 1993, Dr. Klevan earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in Austin.
For twenty-seven years Dr. Klevan served as Music Director and Director of Fine Arts at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach (grades 9-12), and sixteen years as Director of Bands at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Klevan is the Jazz Education Director Emeritus for the Monterey Jazz Festival and currently serves as the Co-Director of the MJF High School Honor Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Director of the MJF Middle School Honor Jazz Band. Dr. Klevan has also served as the Jazz Studies Director for the York School (grades 8-12) and Director of the Pacific Grove High School Jazz Club “Jazz in the Grove” Big Band, as well as Community Relations Specialist for CSU Summer Arts at CSU Monterey Bay, and as the Arts College and Career Guidance Counselor for The Media Center for Arts, Education, & Technology (MCAET) at the Monterey County Office of Education.
Dr. Klevan made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with the UCSC Wind Ensemble in May, 2001, and returned for an encore performance with the ensemble in February, 2009. Dr. Klevan is Past President of the California Orchestra Directors Association, a past 24-year member of the Board for the Central Coast Section of the California Music Educators Association (CMEA), Past President for CMEA and Founding Member and Past Vice-President for the California Alliance for Jazz. He currently serves as a Board member for the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and Ensemble Monterey, and is the Coordinator for the Jazz Education Network’s JENerations Jazz Festival.
In 1992, Dr. Klevan was named CMEA-CCS Educator of the Year and received the McNeely Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Monterey Jazz Festival named him the Jazz Educator of the Year for 2003-04. CMEA selected Dr. Klevan as the Jazz Educator of the Year for 2006-07. In the spring of 2009, he received Downbeat Magazine’s Education Achievement Award. Dr. Klevan was selected as the first recipient of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s “Jazz Champion” Award, and was named the “John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year” by Berklee College of Music in January of 2017. Most recently, Dr. Klevan was inducted into the California Alliance for Jazz Hall of Fame.
Dr. Klevan’s articles on music teaching have been published in JazzEd Magazine, The Jazz Education Journal, The Instrumentalist, CMEA Magazine, The Journal for Texas Music Education Research, Newsletter for the California Association of Independent Schools, The Monterey County Herald, and others.