Young Scholars Charter School to Host Benefit Concert Featuring Wynton Marsalis

Philadelphia, PA (September 27, 2007) – Young Scholars Charter School (YSCS) today announced that it will host a benefit concert featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis on October 4, 2007. The concert will be held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and all proceeds will benefit the school.

“This concert will give us an opportunity to expose our students to a truly great artist and a truly great person who cares about the success of inner-city schools,” said Lars Beck, CEO of YSCS. “It will also give us an opportunity to showcase our school and our students to the whole community. Community involvement – from individuals, corporate supporters and young friends – is crucial to our success and we invite everyone to attend the concert and see first-hand what Young Scholars Charter School is all about.”

YSCS is a charter school in the Philadelphia School District that serves 200 sixth to eighth graders from more than 30 zip codes around the City of Philadelphia. The school has historically served a student population that is over 95 percent African American, of which over 70 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch and 60 percent come from single-parent or single-guardian homes. Like all charter schools in Philadelphia, 80 percent of the school’s operational funding comes from the government and the other 20 percent comes from donations. Any funding for additional programs or expansions must be privately raised.

YSCS aims to offer its students a well-rounded education that prepares them for the best colleges and high schools. In addition to an extended work day (8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.), YSCS offers a variety of extracurricular activities available to its students, many of which are music-related. The school sponsors a choir, a hip hop club and a stepping club among the more than one dozen extracurricular activities offered. The stepping club was recently recognized by the Joost Stomping on the Yard national organization with a $2000 grant.

Tickets to the Young Scholars Charter School benefit concert featuring Wynton Marsalis can be purchased at www.phillyscholars.org.

About Wynton Marsalis
Described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, Wynton Marsalis has dedicated his life to the Arts and to improving the lives of those in need. A native of New Orleans, Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical records and he has sold over 7 million records worldwide. The jazz program at Lincoln Center, co-founded by Marsalis, has earned international acclaim and its “Jazz For Young People” concert series has inspired a new generation of jazz aficionados. As one of the world’s top classical trumpeters, as a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a brilliant composer, a devoted advocate for the Arts and a tireless and inspiring educator, Marsalis reinvented jazz for a widespread audience at a time when it had nearly been abandoned as an art form.

About Young Scholars Charter School
The Young Scholars Charter School was founded in 1999, to create an environment where academic excellence is the norm and not the exception. Located in North Philadelphia, just blocks from Temple University, the school has historically served a student population that is over 95 percent African American. The school's mission is to provide an innovative, community-based transitional program of academic instruction to children in grades six through eight. Young Scholars accomplishes this by creating a nurturing, educationally accelerated learning environment that prepares students for the challenges of rigorous pre-college programs. In supporting each of our students in their individual interests throughout their time here, we aim to provide them with the opportunities necessary to achieve in whatever paths they choose to pursue.
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