Grant aid helps Newmains jazz prodigy to continue his course in USA

May 15 2008

TALENTED teenager has received £5000 from North Lanarkshire Council to continue with his studies at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Jonathan Carr, of Newmains, was awarded the cash from the authority’s Talented and Gifted Young People’s Grant Scheme to help him carry on with his performance degree in America.

The course costs the former Taylor High School pupil £23,000 a year and without the funding from sources like the council he would not be able to finish his studies.

The 19-year-old jazz singer in March earned placement on the Dean’s List for the fall semester of the 2007 academic year.

This was for consistent high grades and displaying outstanding musicianship.

And last month he was chosen from over 100 singers to take part in the Singers Showcase.

The showcase is held each spring giving the college’s best student vocalists the opportunity to perform on the same stage that renowned artists Lalah Hathaway, Susan Tedeschi, Paula Cole and Gillian Welch blossomed.

Prior to going to the USA to take up his place, Jonathan raised cash by holding fund-raising concerts and received grant assistance from the Donald Dewar Trust.

Jonathan’s mum Geraldine, who is married to Gerard and have a daughter Jennifer, said: “The funding from the council has been a great help there is no way Jonathan could continue without this. The experience he has received from the college already has been excellent and it is great that he is supported like this.

“He is doing exceptionally well and it was a bit daunting at first when he left home to go and study over in Boston, but he has just excelled.

“He was always a musical boy from an early age he was playing the keyboard and piano, but it wasn’t until he was about 14 that we realised that he had a great voice.

“He went to a Jazz singing course in Edinburgh and it was there that they released he could sing professionally.”

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music.

For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music of business.

With over a dozen performances and non-performance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today and tomorrow.