By helping pay for college, we empower the brightest individuals to become who they were always destined to be.
An act of kindness by Janet D'Addario many years ago, along with inspiring work by Dr. Margaret Martin, led to the introduction with the Rita and Herbert Z. Gold Trust and the subsequent establishment of the D'Addario Foundation's College Scholarship Fund.
This scholarship is not about competition, test scores, or achievement. It’s about potential. These are kids that have fully dedicated themselves to their community music programs but still have financial obstacles in front of them. That’s where we come in. We’re helping them cover the many costs associated with college, and sticking with them through graduation. Most of these students are the first generation in their families to attend, and they don’t even have to study music. We simply want to empower them to continue to fulfill their amazing potential.
- Suzanne D’Addario
These programs provide students with challenges that build discipline, equanimity, and collaboration at every step, helping them gain the tools they need to show up for life in a much deeper way.
Many of these programs place students on a track that provides greater awareness of higher education at a younger age, giving them the skills, tools, and confidence to advance in education, in art, and in life.
Music education remains as much about the cognitive and social benefits seen in the immediate present as it is about the bountiful rewards reaped by future generations. With such diverse styles, traditions, and instrumentation at play, our recipients are contributing to a lush creative ecosystem for generations to come.
Our scholarship recipients are ambassadors of our work and embody the lasting positive change that results from a robust education in music.
Angelis Lugo, Hostos Community College
Asia Palmer, University of Hartford
Daneyra Mejia, Villanova University
Ethan Chrzanowski, Community College of Philadelphia
Ivana Avila, DePauw University
Kyle Tennyson, Florida State University
MaryBeth Perez Castano, Brooklyn College
Matthew Lewis, Harold Washington College
Sophia Radford, Temple University
Tom Cooke, Berklee College of Music
Abraham Arteaga, Northern Arizona University
Aly Farciert, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Amy Chen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Daniel Espinola, California State University, Channel Islands
George Castro, Wilbur Wright Community College
Keith Fleming, University of Miami
Keldy Penaranda, Stockton University
Michael Rodriguez, University of Arizona
Stephanie Korley, NYU
“This is just a quick note to say how profoundly grateful we are for your thoughtfulness in creating the D'Addario scholarship program. This means so much to the 3 UpBeat students that have been awarded scholarships. We are very moved that D'Addario appreciates the fact that, while music can bring so very much into all our lives, there are very real obstacles that can prevent our students from continuing their journeys into adulthood. Your scholarship support is making a huge difference. Thank you so very much.” - Liza Austria, Founding Director, UpBeat NYC
"Coming from a city where there is a lot of poverty and public schools are underfunded, I can speak first-hand how it’s sad that so many kids do not have access to music education. Through my music program [Play On Philly] I’m seeing how much music education can change a student’s life, by giving them something to be passionate about and creating a safe space. It means a lot that foundations like the D’Addario Foundation reach out to students and give them something like music to immerse their time in, because so many of them need it." - Zora Nelson, NYU
All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose. Imagine this talent bottled up in these kids unexplored, un-invested. There are millions of kids like this in this country who do not have the resources to become everything that they could be. And shame on us if we can’t do this better. But fortunately, these programs are doing the job that sometimes the bigger society fails to do.
- Michelle Obama
By helping pay for college, we empower the brightest individuals to become who they were always destined to be.
We provide transformative resources to offset the gender imbalance, helping girls find their place, both on stage and in the industry.
