Low-income districts find ways to help students make music

PORTLAND, Ore. — Luke Said, 18, spent the summer of 2018 picking raspberries. In 2019, he got a job with a general contractor building food carts. He’s setting aside most of the money for college, but some goes to feed a school-year habit he just can’t kick: playing the trombone.

This story also appeared in Oregon Public Broadcasting

“It’s a fun instrument,” he said. “You can use it with jazz, in musicals, basically everywhere.”

Luke, a senior, is the first-chair trombone in the wind ensemble and jazz band at David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon. He wakes at 5:10 every morning to get in the personal practice, private lessons, band practice and marching band drills he needs to play the instrument he loves. He’s also an A student. Luke’s family helps to cover the cost of private lessons and band fees but he pays for anything “extra” like mutes (a sort of plug for the horn of a trombone), slide oil and other accessories…

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Photo Credit: Ariane Kunze for The Hechinger Report