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Team Building & Leadership Development Through Music

Team Building & Leadership Development Through Music

Some of our clients:

GE Imagination at work
Lookout
Notion
Nike
Thomas Reuters
Sumitomo Chemicals
Five Below
West Rock
Swiss Re
Eva Curl

Music is community. So is great teamwork.

At the New York Jazz Workshop, we believe that music—and especially jazz—is a living model of creativity, communication, and collaboration. Our team building with jazz and leadership development with music programs are designed to bring these qualities to your organization, using music to foster trust, spark innovation, and strengthen connection.

Whether you’re interested in team building with music, leadership development with jazz, or exploring team building and improvisation in a new way, we’ll design a custom experience to meet your goals.

 

Why Teambuilding with Jazz?

Jazz musicians rely on deep listening, mutual support, and improvisation to create something greater than the sum of its parts. These same principles make great teams thrive. Our programs use this language of music to create shared experiences that unlock potential and strengthen group dynamics. Our custom-designed workshops are led by some of New York’s finest jazz musicians and facilitators.

Participants will:
Engage in hands-on musical activities that energize and inspire
Practice active listening and non-verbal communication
Experience real-time leadership and adaptability
Collaborate across roles and comfort zones
Explore how rhythm, harmony, and improvisation relate to business
No music experience required. Just bring your team—and your curiosity.

Core Concepts That Drive Results

Teamwork & Adaptability
How do ideas evolve in high-pressure environments?
What does creativity really mean at work?
How do mistakes become opportunities?

In jazz and in business, collaboration and adaptability are key. Our team building and improvisation exercises train your team to co-create solutions, respond in real time, and thrive in uncertainty.

Language & Communication
“Music is the purest form of communication.”
Jazz is abstract, expressive, and spontaneous—yet deeply structured. Through this medium, teams can explore new forms of non-verbal communication, discover a shared rhythm, and develop a heightened awareness of others. Music becomes a tool for clarity, creativity, and trust.

Listening & Leadership
Jazz musicians lead and follow simultaneously, requiring high-level listening and awareness. Your team will experience this dynamic firsthand—learning how to support, adapt, and step up when it’s their moment to lead. This is leadership development through improvisation at its most authentic.

Outcomes That Resonate

Greater individual expression within collective collaboration
Deeper empathy and active listening skills
Comfort with failure and experimentation
Enhanced morale and creative energy
A shared, joyful experience that builds lasting connection

What Your Team Will Learn

Creative leadership and shared initiative
Collaboration across roles and functions
Flexibility in changing environments
Balance between structure and freedom
How to improvise effectively as a team

No Music Experience? Perfect

Perfect! Everybody, regardless of training, is musical. Do you raise your vocal inflection at the end of questions? Can you hear when your car engine accelerates or decelerates? It can be easy to overlook the musical nature of the world around us, so it is eye opening for “non-musicians” to realize that they do have innate musicianship. “This shift in perspective is the goal.” By recognizing that the boxes we build (like I am tone deaf, or I am not creative…) are artificial, participants will be encouraged to think deeply about other roles they define for themselves. What does it mean to be a leader, or an analyst, or a creative?

Comprehensive Event Support

The New York Jazz Workshop offers several services in conjunction with our teambuilding programs:


Facilitation: For small teams or company-wide events, we scale the program to suit your group.
Venues: From historic jazz clubs to offsite retreats—we’ll find the right setting for your experience.
Catering: Full food and beverage options available for any event format.
Live Music: Choose from duos, trios, full bands, or orchestras featuring New York’s top jazz artists.
Travel: Based in NYC, available worldwide. We bring the experience to you.

Articles about Teambuilding with music

  • A Jazz Music Based Teambuilding Experience
  • Why Your Leadership needs a dose of Jazz
  • What Jazz Can Teach Leaders about Innovation and Teamwork

NYJW Teambuilding at your office

For more information and a price quote contact us at:
teambuilding@newyorkjazzworkshop.com

Get a quote!

Download our brochure

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Testimonials and Quotes

"Thank you again for a wonderful session today! The music was amazing and the conversation was a perfect complement to the discussions we have been having in our leadership program. Thank you all for your help in so quickly getting this organized and presenting such a successful workshop.

Wilson Pillow -Blackboard -Let's Advance Learning

"I have had the privilege of attending one of these sessions, with the team I'm currently working with, and can not speak highly enough of the benefits we gained from it. Using music as a medium for team building put us on an equal footing which enabled us to use different personal qualities we may not have seen or used in the work place. This helped us learn more about each other and form a stronger bond. It's also great fun ! ....Janice Hirst - Deva Curl -

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