The Museum of Making Music is raising funds to support arts in schools through its Jazzed! Benefit for Music Education concert featuring young and gifted musician Chase Morrin.

As schools cope with budget cuts and limited donations, music and arts departments are shrinking or disappearing all together.  Through a partnership with Joli Ann Leichtag Elementary School, the Museum of Making Music introduces more than 800 students each year to music history, theory and a variety of musical instruments. This multi-year program is designed to create happier, healthier and more well-rounded students, and proceeds from the Jazzed! Benefit for Music Education event will help ensure future children are exposed to the world of making music through this in-school program.

The July 7 event begins at 6 p.m. and includes a wine and cheese reception, testimonials from music educators and students, and a special performance by Morrin, a San Diego native who discovered music at a young age and has since developed into a proficient pianist.

Tickets are $35; $30 for museum members.  For more information and to purchase tickets, call 760/438-5996.

We need your help to support this program for the 2012/2013 school year.  Donations can be made at the event or in advance:

  $25 supports one student - Donate Online
$125 supports five students - Donate Online
$250 supports ten students - Donate Online
$750 supports an entire classroom - Donate Online
$3,500 supports an entire grade level - Donate Online

Chase Morrin, composer, pianist, and band leader from San Diego, CA is a freshman in a double degree program at Harvard (Bachelor’s in Science, class of 2015) and New England Conservatory (Master’s in Jazz Composition, class of 2016). He is currently studying with Ken Shaphorst and Frank Carlberg, composes for the NEC Jazz Composers' Workshop Orchestra and plays piano in an NEC ensemble directed by Jerry Bergonzi.

Chase directs, composes, and arranges for the Chase Morrin Trio, which won the open combo division at Monterey’s Next Generation Jazz Festival and performed at the 2011 Monterey Jazz Festival. His trio performs all original music on his first studio CD, En Común, which is recently released. His musical activities have included composing and conducting for Canyon Crest Academy's choir, music, dance and theater conservatories; percussion in the wind ensemble; piano for MiraCosta College’s Latin Jazz Orchestra; and piano for Palomar College's jazz ensemble. Chase has traveled to Indonesia to study gamelan music and played bonang in a Javanese gamelan orchestra through the World Center of Music.

Chase discovered the keyboard at the age of eight when he received a toy “Costco” keyboard for Christmas. He immediately started playing/improvising, composing and has never stopped since then. Chase draws from a variety of cultural musical influences – jazz, Latin, classical and world - hoping to inspire and connect his audiences.