Help Jack Go To The New School of Jazz in NYC

My son Jack has loved music since the first time he took band in 6th grade. He started with clarinet, then moved to alto sax. Once I showed him a Lucky Chops video, featuring baritone saxophonist Leo P, Jack had a new goal in life…to play the baritone saxophone.

In middle school, Jack started off playing the clarinet and then switched to the alto sax. Under the guidance of Jeffrey Reynolds, Jack got a taste of playing with a high school marching band! Then COVID hit and the love of music waned as virtual school made band class difficult. Once Jack got to high school, he attended a school for technology and arts, specializing in auto collision repair. Then he met his new band director, Craig Retzlaff, and everything changed. A fire was lit, stoked, and raging. Jack’s passion for music was greater than ever before. And that’s how it’s been for 4 years: participating in marching band, jazz band, brass band, symphonic band, and the pit orchestra of two of the school's musicals. He ended up getting his collision repair certifications AND pursued music. It’s like he double-majored in high school.

Just last night, at the band banquet, Jack won the prestigious Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. Jazz is his life and this has been a goal of his since his freshman year. This fall, Jack is off to college.

It was a no-brainer that Jack would want to attend music school. And he wanted to be in a location that had an amazing, varied, music scene. NYC was the natural choice. Jack was accepted to The New School of Jazz. This is THE DREAM!

Here’s the thing. The annual tuition for The New School of Jazz is slightly less than my and my husband’s income combined. (We are both public school teachers in NC and SC.) We have researched and applied for scholarships and we will be applying for loans, although I’m not sure he will be able to get a loan for that amount of money. We don’t want him to graduate with crippling debt either. We did receive some aid from The New School, but it’s not nearly enough. What we are asking for here is the balance due. I know it’s a long shot because it is such an incredibly large sum of money, but at this point, honestly, anything would help. I want my son to be able to follow his dream. This time next year, he will be able to apply for even more scholarships because he will hav me earned his Eagle Scout rank with the Boy Scouts of America and there is a lot of aid out there for Eagle Scouts.

I will be adding some videos of Jack playing so you can enjoy his talents.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. If you want to support the arts or know someone who does, we’d really appreciate it if you could share. Even if you can’t make a donation.