JMArts donates baby grand piano
for students at Jordan-Matthews

SILER CITY, N.C. — The idea took root two years ago when the All County Chorus performed at Jordan-Matthews. It was an evening of glorious choral music, performed beautifully by the community’s best vocalists. But there was only one wrong note: the piano.

"When we wheeled out the old upright from the chorus room, it looked really sad, and its sound didn’t come close to matching the quality of our students' performance," said chorus teacher Matt Fry. "That's when we started wondering if there was any way we could buy a new piano."
But budgets were tight at the school and district, and requests through the usual funding channels didn't bear fruit. So last fall, JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews Arts Foundation, took up the cause and began a fundraising drive to purchase a used baby grand.
"We were a little nervous about committing to raise the thousands of dollars even a quality used piano would cost," said foundation president Rose Pate. "But Matt kept saying he thought we could pull it off. And he was right.
"The outpouring of support from all over the county was incredible, particularly from the Fearrington community. By January, just a few months after the campaign began, we had enough gifts and pledges to cover not only the cost of the piano, but also the cost of maintenance and building a secure place to store it.”



Matt and new piano