These Jazz Students Play for Justice

08 December 2010

Jazz 4 Justice concerts raise money for local legal services and for music scholarships at Virginia's George Mason University

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

(MUSIC)

Each year, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, presents a jazz concert. Around one thousand two hundred people attended this year's concert in October.

Yet when the program first started, the student musicians played to an almost empty theater. Ed Weiner was one of the few people in the audience when the school held the first jazz concert ten years ago.

ED WEINER: "The quality of the performance was outstanding, but I was shocked to see the poor attendance."

So he did something about it. He found a way not only to increase attendance, but also to raise money for the community.

Ed Weiner is a lawyer. He organized the concerts into a program called Jazz 4 Justice. The performers include students and employees from the university, along with guest musicians.

The concert raises money for the Fairfax Law Foundation. The local group uses some of that money to provide free legal services to people in the community.

The foundation also supports programs to help young people learn about the legal system. These include courthouse tours and education about the legal and health effects of drug and alcohol abuse.