Harlem School Of The Arts To Launch New Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Academy Honoring The Trumpet Virtuoso And Celebrating His Lasting Contributions

On February 20th, as part of the month-long Black History celebration, the Harlem School of the Arts will launch an important new, FREE music program, the Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Academy, made possible by the Herb Alpert Foundation.

Mr. Alpert considered Dizzy Gillespie a good friend whose musicianship he respected and admired. In the 1990s, to preserve Dizzy’s legacy, he established the Dizzy Gillespie Chair in Music at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and funded the Dizzy Gillespie Digital Recording Studio.

When the opportunity presented itself to support the expansion of the Harlem School of the Arts music portfolio with additional jazz programming, the Herb Alpert Foundation did not hesitate to endorse the organization’s continued fulfillment of its mission to provide exceptional arts training and exposure for thousands of children, families, and community members.

James C. Horton, HSA president & CEO – “The Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Academy will not only serve as the perfect platform to teach this amazing art form, but it will also serve as a reminder of the life, legacy, and artistry of one of Jazz Music’s greatest trumpeters and composers, the Great Dizzy Gillespie. I’m excited for our students to continue to immerse themselves in this art form, keeping the strong history of Jazz Music in Harlem.”

The Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Academy offers the organization an opportunity to create and introduce an even more robust music curriculum focused on the study of the genre’s history, musicianship, and music theory while building opportunities for developing social and emotional learning skills, which can serve students in whatever post-secondary options they pursue. The goals include tapping into the proven benefits that arts education, and in this case, music education can provide:

• Experiencing expanded horizons for life choices and decision-making.
• Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for life.
• Developing sustained relationships with trusted adult instructors/teachers.
• Developing collaborative relationships with peers, and making contributions to collaborative work.
• Experiencing joy and a sense of belonging to and learning from the responsibilities of being part of a cohesive, inclusive community.

Recruitment for and participation in the Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Academy is FREE for young people, and registration is on a rolling basis. Like other structured jazz groups and individualized instructional classes, special workshops, and performance opportunities provided at HSA, will rely on referrals from our partner schools, program alumni, and community organizations, including religious centers, community events, and festivals – and will be completely free of charge to all participants, most of who will receive high-quality instruments at no cost, to use and maintain for as long as they remain active and committed to the program.

The inaugural celebration and cocktail reception will be on February 20th at 6:00 pm and will be hosted by James C. Horton, president & CEO of HSA, and Shelly Bauer, Director of the Music Department, with featured performances by the HSA Music Students and Alumni, and the HSA Dance Ensemble. The Philadelphia-based visual artist King Saladeen, a friend of the organization, will be on hand to support the launch of this important program with an on-site art exhibition of his works.

New York City’s premier community arts and youth development institution, the Harlem School of the Arts, the Herb Alpert Center has been uniquely positioned at the intersection of arts, community, education, and social justice, and through the transformational power of the arts, dedicated to bringing equity of opportunity to every student. The institution’s reputation for artistic rigor and excellence attracts students of diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds from the five New York City boroughs as well as Westchester County and the tri-state area, which includes Connecticut and New Jersey. HSA’s alumni and faculty are counted among the most talented leaders in the arts.

Founded by concert soprano Dorothy Maynor 60 years ago, HSA has enriched the lives of tens of thousands of young people through world-class training in the arts. HSA offers its students the freedom to develop the artist and citizen within themselves in an environment that teaches discipline, stimulates creativity, builds self-confidence, and adds a dimension of beauty to their lives, empowering them to become creative thinkers and innovative leaders of tomorrow.