Music for Schools

World-class music on the slopes of Volcan Baru

BJBF Music for Schools program

The Boquete Jazz and Blues Foundation is committed to supporting and improving musical education, and to find and develop local musical talents. We support the schools in this endeavor with helping to get donated musical instruments for the orchestra as well as recruiting volunteer teachers from the Boquete community. Additionally, each year festival musicians hold workshops for local music students during the festival.

BJBF Music for Schools program continues!

After a long pause due to the Covid 19 pandemic the 2023 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival was a great success despite taking place with a smaller format. This success also enabled the continuation of our Music in Schools program. Following the tradition, festival director John Wolff presented a cheque of $1000 to a local school in Boquete in support of musical eduction.

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BJBF continues to support musical education in local schools!

2016
On November, 9 2016 Mr. John Wolf, director of The Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival, presented a check in the amount of $1,000.00 to the Colegio Bilingue el Buen Pastor in Boquete.

2015:
The students of Academia Internacional de Boquete that performed a musical "Grease" with financial support from the foundation of the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival.

2014
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 to the principals of the Academia Internacional de Boquete (AIB), Mrs. Carla Rigau and Mrs. Melissa Vallarino.

This donation was 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 in one of the intermissions of the 2015 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival
See below a video of excerpts of "Grease" performed by AIB students at the 2015 festival.

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

Foto below by Michael Moore

The first photos of events in the course of the 2014 Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival:
Here are some pics of the February 8 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival Music For Kids event at the BCP sponsored by Baru Restaurant. This event was part of the festival's Music for Schools program. The link below is to some photos taken by photographer Robert Brauns. http://www.flickr.com/photos/116950058@N08/with/12394527424/

Here's a slide show of the same event with photos by Hans-J. Lebuser.
What a great fun it was to see the kids trying out the various instruments! What better purpose can a music festival have but to introduce kids to the fun of making music!

The Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival Foundation did it again: We donated $4,500 from the proceeds of the successful 2013 festival to local Boquete schools!

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 our Music for Schools program.

BJBF president Hans Lebuser and treasurer Anayansi Menendez presenting a cheque of $800 to the principals of AIB. Photo by Michael Moore

The BJBF Music for Schools program at work!
Below are some pics of the school orchestra of the Escuela del Buen Pastor (School of the Good Pastor) parading in Boquete on Panama's national holiday with instruments bought with the 2013 donation of the Boquete Jazz&Blues Festival Foundation. The orchestra has tripled in size with the help from our foundation!

Boquete citizens donate $350 and musical instruments to our program...

On August 23rd, 2012 the Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival foundation handed donations it had received from some members 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.&Mrs. Richard and Julie Cacianti

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.

A beautiful slide show of a very special event:
Friday, March 1, 2013: BJBF 2013 harp clinic for students of local schools in Boquete. Harp masters Bob Corritore and Andy Egert teaching students how to play the harp. The Hohner company from Austin Tx. generously donated 50 harps for this event. Photos by Michael Moore and Ron Elkind.