This fall, we are announcing a new innovative pilot program offering beginner's jazz training free to middle school students in the area. This is a school-year-based, after-school program to be held at Red Bank Middle School. This program will target middle school-age students with 2 or 3 years of instrumental music experience. Students will be accepted tuition-free by audition. They will join a performance-based guided tour through a curated curriculum of jazz performance, theory, improvisation and historic significance. They will form a performing ensemble with opportunities for public performances in the community. Group instruction will involve instrument lessons while weaving in jazz concepts, such as jazz scales and chord structure, call and response, and improvisation. The result is an innovative program that builds confidence and comfort with jazz as an art form while serving as an outlet for expression and personal growth. The program helps supplement local school systems' music education programs and serves as a feeder system to our own Jazz Arts Academy program for high school musicians.