Changing kids' lives through Jazz
From CNN
“The most essential thing for the development of kids and their understanding of the world are those things they do that’s not school-related — just any extracurricular activity,” the Pulitzer Prize winner said. “When you have activities you learn at a young age, you can do whatever you put your mind to!”
Marsalis, 47, co-founded Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. As part of its goal to inspire and cultivate jazz audiences, Jazz at Lincoln Center sponsors youth events including an annual nationwide high school jazz band competition and festival, a Band Director’s Academy and a popular concert series for kids.
“Jazz helps younger kids, especially, to connect with their innermost feelings and learn that [there’s] nothing wrong with being real,” Marsalis said.
To Marsalis, jazz performer and instructor Davey Yarborough does just that. Yarborough provides Washington youth the opportunity and guidance to nurture their musical talents, not only as an educator at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts but also at his nonprofit jazz arts institute.
Marsalis met Yarborough in the 1980s during one of his performance trips to the nation’s capital and was struck by Yarborough’s dedication to the students.
“I will see him at events, concerts. … He always has kids with him,” Marsalis said. “He teaches all of his kids with the same intensity and feeling, and gives them that same feeling of specialness. It’s something that can’t be contrived.”
Yarborough, 55, says his motivation and inspiration stems, in part, from tragedy.
After the 1988 death of one of his Duke Ellington students, Anthony Nash, in a drug trafficking incident, Yarborough decided to create a program geared toward music enrichment and mentorship during off-school hours.
To read the rest of this story, check out CNN.
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