UNO Music Department Receives $20,000 in Grants for Jazz Education Program

The University of New Orleans Department of Music is the recipient of two grants totaling $20,000 that will support the department's jazz educational outreach program. Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center donated $15,000 while the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation gave $5,000.

The mission of UNO's 10-year old program, known as JazzEd, is to improve musical performance skills and understanding of jazz by providing additional instruction in Orleans Parish public schools. UNO JazzEd teachers most recently worked in McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School and Warren Easton Charter High School, directing jazz ensembles and teaching jazz history and theory.

The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, based in New York, has been a supporter of the program from the outset. The Jazz at Lincoln Center grant is made through its Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Fund, which was initially formed to benefit musicians and music industry-related enterprises following Hurricane Katrina.