JAMinc Outreach Collective

The Children’s Museum of Richmond is grateful for the valuable partnership we have enjoyed over the past four years with JAMinc. It has been richly productive to collaborate with another organization that shares our commitment to bring the joy of music to the families of Richmond. In the Family Area of the National Folk Festival and in the Museum’s Lunchtime Live summer music series, funded by the Harvey Family Endowment, JAMinc has helped connect us with regional musicians eager to share their passion for music with the CMoR audience.

– Claire Mehalick, Special Projects Manager, Children’s Museum of Richmond, 2008

JAMinc has provided years of great entertainment.  For just about every concert, whether it be big or small, they would invite one of our deserving students to see the concert for free.  The talents that they bring are always wonderful and professional.  I hope that JAMinc continues to grow and prosper and bring into Richmond the incredible talents of musicians all over the world.

– Harrison Music

It is my pleasure to write a letter in support of JAMinc. We have enjoyed a long-standing partnership with this organization that has resulted in outstanding opportunities for the students at Mary Munford School.

Children have been exposed to music they would never have heard had it not been for JAMinc’s efforts. Musicians like Bryan Bowers, Wayne Henderson, John Cephas, and Papa Suso have performed on the Munford stage.

There has been a significant impact on both students and teachers. We have children who have decided to learn to play instruments as a result of hearing and meeting these wonderful musicians. One 5th grade teach began teaching guitar to a few students and now his whole class is learning guitar each week. You can walk down the hall on some days and find several students out in the hall playing their instruments. We were able to get support from Hohner Inc to obtain 30 guitars that students use. We started a recorder program in grades 2 and 3 that has been going on for three years. Following a fall concert by Bryan Bowers, our music teacher found three autoharps for her music instructional program that had been sitting in storage in another building.

In conclusion, I fully support the efforts of JAMinc to bring music programs and music education into the schools. This is a wonderful organization that has made a huge difference in the lives of the children at Mary Munford Elementary School.

– Greg Muzik, Principal, Mary Munford Elementary School, 2009

I am writing you in support of JAMinc, a non-profit organization with a mission “to open minds, hearts, and ears to music deserving a wider audience through education performance, and support.”

It has been my pleasure to serve on JAMinc’s Advisory Council for the last couple of years, but I had been well aware of the organization and its goals and actions before then. JAMinc had already taken the very visible step of articulating its objective; and it is an ideal fit within Richmond, a city more open to a variety of artistic style than most.

If a JAMinc were in most other cities, the citizens would not be as receptive. But in Richmond, JAMinc noted a population that would be very willing to attend and support acoustic music of less-commercial styles if the citizens would only be introduced to it and find it in approachable venues at affordable prices.

To that end, JAMinc has successfully presented an ongoing series of live concerts in one of Richmond’s best studios, In Your Ear, also facilitating dialogue at its concert receptions among these community supporters. The concerts are recorded at the highest fidelity, which has led to radio broadcasts that have reached many more people in the Richmond area.

True to its mission, JAMinc has also brought artists in the schools to perform, demonstrate, teach and inspire. And it has also supported other worthy causes in town, including the VCU Virginia High School Jazz Piano Competition to recognize young local talent.

In short, JAMinc is dedicated to its cause, effective in its activities, and inspirational with its model. It is my hope that this organization will not only thrive and grow but also become more visibly a model for other cities to examine, adapt, and then adopt for their own communities.

I offer JAMinc my highest recommendation and hope that you will come to know and appreciate its gifts to Greater Richmond as I do.

– Antonio J. Garcia, Associate Professor, VCU, 2009