Madison Jazz Society Awards Grant to Belleville High School

In November, the Madison Jazz Society awarded grants totaling $7,320 from its School Grant Fund to music programs in Wisconsin schools to help students learn about and perform jazz. Grant requests were received from fifteen schools around the state, many of which are in the midst of attempting to rebuild their jazz education programs after the COVID pandemic.
One of the 2021-22 school year grants in the amount of $500 was awarded to Belleville High School, Stephanie Meir, Director, to help purchase a Yamaha Baritone saxophone for the Jazz band.
Other grants were awarded to Wisconsin Hills Middle School, Brookfield (Phil Rothschadl, Director) – $500 to help purchase sheet music to revive the Middle School Jazz Program; Cambridge High School (Nathan Gerlach, Director) – $500 to underwrite a guest artist to work with the school’s jazz ensemble; DeForest Area High School (Brandon Bautz, Director) – $500 to underwrite jazz student participation in the UW-Stevens Point Jazz Festival; Mayville High School (James Cooney, Director) – $500 to help purchase reduced instrumentation part charts for the Jazz band; Platteville High School (Kevin Cooley, Director) – $500 to underwrite expansion of the band’s music library; Reedsburg Area High School (Scott Bruer, Director) – $500 to underwrite the Baraboo/Portage/Reedsburg Honors Jazz Project; Stoughton High School (Dan Schmidt, Director) – $495 to help purchase jazz ensemble method books and music; Patrick Marsh Middle School, Sun Prairie (Sharon Haraldson, Director) – $500 to underwrite the Sun Prairie Middle School Jazz Festival and Wisconsin Dells Middle & High Schools (Matt Roble & Koreena Wood, Directors) – $500 to help purchase a trumpet and trombone for the school’s jazz band. Many other awards were also presented.
In announcing the awards, MJS President Linda Marty Schmitz stated, “We are very proud that the money awarded this year and since the program began in 1989 brings the total amount of scholarships and grants awarded by our all-volunteer organization to over $148,000. We are pleased that these grants will assist students and teachers from all over Wisconsin now and in years to come. We are thrilled to see that these schools are working to provide opportunities for their students to learn about America’s original art form – jazz.”
More information on the school grant program and the Society can be found at www.madisonjazz.com. Formed in 1984, the Madison Jazz Society is a non-profit, all volunteer organization formed to encourage the performance of, preservation of and education about jazz.