Nick Jaffe

Nick Jaffe is a teaching artist, curriculum designer, writer, musician, audio engineer, Illinois certified K-8 teacher and the Chief Editor of The Teaching Artist Journal, a print and online quarterly published by Routledge and edited under the auspices of Columbia College Chicago. As a teaching artist Nick has focused on the development of student-run recording studios in elementary schools. Nick has worked as a teaching artist in a wide variety of in-school and other contexts. He has also designed and implemented programming, curriculum and professional development for Urban Gateways, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE), Columbia College Chicago, Marwen Foundation,The Lyric Opera of Chicago, and a variety of other schools and organizations. Nick’s teaching artist expertise is in music and technology integration and in collaborative assessment and evaluation of teaching, curriculum and programs.

Nick received a BA in History from Yale University and an MS in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. Nick has taught a wide variety of subjects to people of all ages, including English as a Second Language, Judo, and Aircraft Maintenance. He spent 10 years working as an aircraft mechanic and avionics instructor for a number of major U.S. and international airlines.

Nick is also the guitarist for Soul People, Slowbots, H2O Soul, Super Moon, and 727 Generator, and has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Common, Ice Cube, Bobby Brown, Estelle, Bilal, Jaguar Wright, Renee Neufville, Dwele and Syleena Johnson. Nick’s studio credits include national TV campaigns for Kraft and sessions as a guitarist and producer for many local, national and international hip hop, soul and R&B artists. Nick’s recent solo album Sputnik 1 is a musical history of the first artificial satellite.