Help James Copus go to Juilliard!

James is a once-in-a-generation musician - he’s also a top guy and a great friend whom we all know and love.

Part of the reason we all love him is that he isn’t a bragger, despite being an absolutely killing trumpeter, which is why not many people will know he’s been offered one of the few places available on the Artist Diploma at Juilliard school of music for the next academic year. This is an incredible achievement and an opportunity that James absolutely deserves, and moving to New York has been one of his biggest dreams for the whole time I’ve known him.

However, as with most things money is a huge barrier. Since finding out he has been offered a place in April, James he been applying for grants and exploring avenues for funding to enable him to live in New York for the duration of the course - but due to how late in the academic year the audition process took place there hasn’t been any luck with this as many grants are awarded much earlier in the year. He is therefore facing the very real prospect of forfeiting his place on the course and saying “oh well at least I tried”.

With the support of his family and friends, I believe we can raise enough money to give James a leg up and make this happen - to raise enough money to get him to New York for a few months and buy him the time to secure more funding for the remainder of the course.

The initial target of £5000 was smashed in less than 48 hours, and the second target of £10,000 in four days. So I’ve upped the goal again to £15,000 to see how much we can raise!

Please help by donating and by sharing this with anyone who knows James or who would help towards this cause.

N.B. If for whatever reason James doesn’t take his place on the course, all of you lovely people will be refunded in full.

N.B.+ The goal is flexible - even if the target isn’t reached James will still receive as much as we have managed to raise, and if we smash the target then every little extra counts!