Back when I was a neophyte jazz pianist in my high school jazz band, there were certain colleges you thought about attending where you could continue to study this wonderful art form.

The big conservatories were out, on the grounds that they were more interested in classical, but the Berklee College of Music in Boston, as well as the University of North Texas (then called North Texas State) were considered havens for jazz instruction. So, too, was the University of South Florida, if not as much back then.

On Monday, the University of Miami made another move toward national jazz-haven status when it named trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard to the position of artistic director of its Henry Mancini Institute. This is by any reasonable measure a major deal for jazz education in South Florida, because it brings one of the leading jazz figures working today into a key leadership role.

That the Mancini Institute itself, which lived for years in Southern California, moved to UM was an important development when it occurred in 2009; the institute had closed for lack of funding at the end of 2006. With Blanchard at the helm, the Mancini Institute will now have a higher profile in the jazz world, as will the UM program, which is led by pianist Shelton Berg.

The UM folks say Blanchard will conduct the Mancini Institute Orchestra in addition to teaching, and since the mission of the institute is to train musicians to “create and perform in mixed-genre, collaborative settings,” there no doubt will be a substantial emphasis on Blanchard’s career as a composer for film.

Let’s take a moment to look at another recent development hereabouts to see what’s happening in the aggregate. Late last year, Florida State’s film school signed a deal with a private company, Digital Domain, to build an Industrial Light and Magic-style animation college in West Palm Beach that will one day host as many as 3,000 students. Mix that with the Mancini Institute, and you have another center besides Los Angeles for the creation of film, video and other media projects — and the music for them — and at what should be a surpassingly high level.

Blanchard’s appointment could be the next important step in making this part of the country, long pitched as ideal for the film industry, a robust center for it. It will be most interesting to see whether officials, students and movie makers see it as worthwhile to bring all those connections together and build a real economic powerhouse for the state’s economy.

I hope, too, that Blanchard’s appointment means more local jazz concerts. There are several groups outside the Miami area – the Gold Coast Jazz Society in Fort Lauderdale, the Jazz Arts Music Society in West Palm – that also keep the jazz faith. That they have survived for years in a difficult environment says something about the permanent appeal of this music for devotees.

But it would be nice to see a regular series of concerts in tandem with Blanchard’s arrival; South Florida could always use more jazz, and here’s an opportunity to get some more through the agency of this leading figure on today’s scene.

The naming of Terence Blanchard to the Mancini post is good news for education, for jazz, for film and for the state as a whole. It should mean bigger things for South Florida’s arts culture, and I hope it means bigger things for ordinary listeners like me, who can celebrate this news by sitting in a darkened hall and hearing the new places where this music is going.