Renowned Guitarist’s Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation
Offers $35,000 Tuition Credit for Promising Young Musicians
In a recent press release, Musicians Institute, the College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood, announced the brand new Joe Bonamassa Torch Bearer Scholarship, offering $35,000 in tuition credit to support the educational growth of a newly enrolling MI Guitar Program student. Sponsored by Bonamassa’s own non-profit Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, the scholarship will be awarded to a student who demonstrates overall outstanding musicianship, advanced skills, and the potential for developing a unique sound on the guitar.
“Sometimes you are fortunate enough that an opportunity presents itself to change someone else’s life,” said Joe Bonamassa. “Musicians Institute has great programs—not for just guitar, but for other instruments and music industry subjects. When it all boils down, sometimes a kid can only afford either the tuition or the room and board, not to mention guitar strings and picks. So we have taken the tuition off the table and are sending a kid to school for a year. To whoever gets the scholarship, I hope that he or she uses it to change the trajectory of their lives! Good luck and keep playing loud!”
“Joe Bonamassa absolutely ‘walks the walk’ when it comes to supporting music education and inspiring the next generation, all while blazing a trail as a bonafide blues guitar legend,” said Beth Marlis, Vice President of Industry + Community Relations at Musicians Institute. “We are proud of our ongoing partnership with Joe, and we’re confident that this amazing scholarship opportunity will excite the talents of aspiring guitarists around the world.”
The scholarship is available to guitarists who will be enrolled in an Associate of Arts or Bachelor Degree Guitar Performance Program at MI beginning in Fall 2015. Applicants are invited to submit a DVD recording of themselves performing three songs in any genre (two live ensemble performances and one unaccompanied solo guitar performance) on the electric and/or acoustic guitar. The deadline for Fall 2015 applicants is August 28th. For details, visit mi.edu/admissions-financial-aid/scholarships.
About Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa continues to blaze a remarkably versatile artistic trail, and amass an authentic, innovative and soulful body of work. Bonamassa’s career began onstage opening for B.B. King in 1989, when he was only 12 years old. Today, he is hailed worldwide as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation, and is an ever-evolving singer-songwriter who has released 15 solo albums in the last 13 years, all on his own label, J&R Adventures. Bonamassa’s tour schedule consistently hovers at around 200 shows worldwide each year, and a heaping handful of markedly diverse side projects keep him thinking outside the box and flexing every musical muscle he’s got. He founded and oversees the non-profit Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation to promote the heritage of the blues to the next generation, fund music scholarships, and supplement the loss of music education in public schools. http://jbonamassa.com/
About Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation
Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation fuels the passion for music by funding programs and scholarships for students and teachers who possess the desire, but lack the resources or access to achieve their potential within the music industry. Through generous corporate sponsorships by industry powerhouses Ernie Ball Strings, Guitar Center, J&R Adventures, and other donors, KTBA has been able to fund music projects affecting over 19,000 students since 2013. They accomplish this by making weekly donations to music projects in schools all over the country, and soon… the world! http://keepingthebluesalive.org/