Did you know?
The Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival Foundation is donating 100% of profits of the festival to local schools in order to support and improve musical education, and to find and develop local musical talents. Altogether, the foundation has since 2012 donated $7,300 to local schools!

To learn more about this great program please go to the Music for Schools page on this website by clicking here!

On June 18, 2014 Mr. Hans Lebuser, director of the Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival 2015 and treasurer of the Boquete Jazz&Blues Foundation handed a cheque of $2000 over to the principals of the Academia Internacional de Boquete (AIB), Mrs. Carla Rigau and Mrs. Melissa Vallarino.

This donation is specifically to be used for the realization of three projects:
1. A 3-day musical show of students of the AIB at the Boquete communal theater BCP in December 2014
2. A musical-theatrical show at the opening of the planned art show "Art of Music' which will run at the Boquete library parallel to the 2015 festival
3. A short musical-theatrical performance during one of the intermissions of the 2015 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival

Just one more example of how the Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival is contributing to the improvement of musical education and activities in our area!

These are some pics of the presentation of cheques of $4500 to the Academia Internacional and the Escuela Buen Pastor in Boquete. The donation was made possible by the great success of the 2013 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival and their Music for Schools program. We're thanking everybody who contributed to this success: Sponsors, the festival audience and our great group of volunteers who made all this possible!

The schools' responses:

More Music Matters…
Colegio Bilingüe El Buen Pastor & Big Daddy's Grill, Boquete, send out an enormous Thank You to Hans Lebuser, to the Board & to all the Volunteers of the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival Foundation for the gift of $2,750 for the purchase of instruments for El Buen Pastor school's music band.
This gift is beyond anything the school ever imagined  and  extends to the entire community via music education and the school's involvement in bringing classical music concerts to Boquete. Thank You Hans and all the board and volunteers at JAZZ & BLUES FEST
Did you know? 
The Jazz & Blues folks also donated 50 Brand New Hohner Harmonicas to Boquete’s community children and, during  the event, offered the kids a class by two delighted professional musicians.
Having a real music band at El Buen Pastor brings music education and classical music to the entire community via the parades and also through the Woodwind and String Concerts, (which were coordinated by Profesor Eduin and sponsored heavily by the school and many others, including local restaurants, retailers and through fairly priced ticket sales.)
The Jazz Folk's generous gift was then piggy-backed with a mini-grant from Bid4Boquete, mentioned in a separate posting.
How's that for hopping on the Love Train?
This thanks is sent with heartfelt gratitude from,  Profesora Abdialy de Alvarado, Directota;  Profesor Eduin Montenegro;  Licenciada Nerchet Santamarìa  - Administradora; The Slagle Family, big and small, at Big Daddy’s Grill.
Did you know? 
Many are unaware that private schools are known to offer a good portion of  scholarships – at times some have had close to 50% of students on full or parcial  scholarship!  Many of these are shouldered by the schools themselves, in addition to having  private sponsors.  Despite the  “private” status, these schools are not chock full of the privileged, but rather full of committed  parents who sometimes struggle to pay the monthly tuition in order to provide a “step up” for their children.  Two schools now have musical bands that have been enhanced by donations from the Boquete Jazz & Blues Fest.  Big Daddy's Grill believes music matters, and we, and  the schools,  are overjoyed.
Boquete, Panama May 7, 2013


Academia Internacional Boquete
April 30, 2013
 
Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival Foundation
 
On behalf of the students, parents and faculty of Academia Internacional Boquete, thank you for your generous donation to our music program. We appreciate your collaboration and interest in the cultural and social development of our students. With your donation, we are able to provide instruments for our band. Attached are photos of the students with their new instruments.
 
We look forward to your continued involvement and wish you continued success. Once again, thank you for all that you have contributed to AIB.
 
Best Regards,
Academia Internacional Boquete
 
Saludos cordiales,
Academia Internacional Boquete
Tel: 720-2821 / Fax :720-2283
mail: [email protected]
http://www.aib.edu.pa

On August 23rd, 2012 the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival foundation handed donations it had received from some memberss of the Boquete expat community over  to the Academia Internacional de Boquete (AIB) to support the school’s orchestra project.

$200 and a Casio keyboard were donated by Mr. Bob Schmucker

$150 were donated by Mr. Sean Bigler and Ms. Bonnie Lykes

A trumpet was donated by Mr. Lou Jelinek

An acoustic guitar was donated by Mr. Hans-J. Lebuser

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the generous donors for their support of musical education in Boquete through our Music for Schools program.

BJBF Music for School program
Last week the Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival Foundation proudly presented a donation of $800 to the Academia Internacional de Boquete, a school with 160 students of 26 different nationalities. The school is planning to create a student orchestra. The BJBF Music for School program is using the net profits of the Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival to support musical education at local schools, and the AIB was the first beneficiary of this program. We're proud being able to help find and support the development of local musical talents! Read more here: http://www.boquetejazzandbluesfestival.com/music-for-schools.html