Young Gibbs High trumpeter wins music scholarship and plans a career in jazz

I was lucky enough to be among the judges for a scholarship competition sponsored by the Tampa Bay Business for Culture and the Arts. I got to hear a lot of great music including a young trumpeter from Gibbs High named Jason Charos. Jason won the instrumental music scholarship and performed recently at the awards show at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

 

Jason, a very dedicated and driven young musicians, has his eyes set on a career in jazz. I just saw a great profile of Jason in the Belleair Bee and wanted to share it with you. I’m hoping to get Jason into the Palladium soon so our audience can hear him as well.

 

Below are excerpts from the news article. Here’s a link to the story in the Belleair Bee.

 

 

By BRIAN GOFF

 

BELLEAIR BLUFFS – Belleair Bluffs resident Jason Charos, 16, has been playing the trumpet since he was 5 years old. Ever since then music has been his life and as he looks to the future music will continue to be his life. He has been immersed in it all that time and now it is beginning to pay off.

 

Charos is going into his senior year at Gibbs High School. He attends the County Center for the Arts there and of course studies music. All along he has hoped to be able to go to music school after high school. That is now more reality than hope because he has just been awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts.

 

Susana Weymouth, executive director of the organization, said getting a scholarship from them is no easy task.

 

“The process for application is quite serious,” she said. “The students need letters of recommendation from their teachers and instructors. Jason had to submit an audio video recording of himself as well.”

 

Weymouth added that Charos clearly showed he is a special talent deserving of the award.

 

“It is a very competitive talent pool so the fact that Jason was selected means he has incredible talent and dedication to his music,” she said.

 

It is that dedication, she said, that showed the judges he would be a worthy candidate for the scholarship once he goes away to university.

 

“He started very young and has showed his dedication over time,” she said. “In order to study in higher education one needs that sustained effort over time. Clearly Jason has done that.”

 

For Charos, all that dedication and work has been a labor of love. He admits that playing the trumpet isn’t work.

 

“It has always been fun for me to play,” he said. “One of the things I learned was to enjoy it, learn to move the music. I’ve had lots of intense practices and I‘ve had to push myself on occasion, but I always loved it.”

 

Charos has his older brother Philip, 23, to thank for his life in music – his brother and his mother.

 

“When I was five my brother was in a jazz band for kids. You had to be under 13 to be in it,” he said. “So my mother signed me up. By the time I was 7 I was taking guitar lessons and learning how to read music. Then I took private lessons as well.”

 

 

Charos hopes to get into the Julliard School of Music when he graduates. Famed trumpet player Wynton Marsalis is the director of jazz studies there.

 

“I’m confident that I’ll be able to get in,” he said, “I’m going to a music camp this summer and I’ll be meeting many of the Julliard teachers there.”

 

After that Charos has his dreams. Perhaps someday he will teach other young aspiring musicians. He’d like to play in a small group and his dream is to play in the Lincoln Center jazz orchestra.

 

Charos is aware that making music a career is a risky business. For every superstar there are thousands of musicians eking out a living, hoping for that big break.

 

“It is a tough way to make a living, I’m aware of that but I’m willing to do it because this is what I love,” he said. “This is what I want to do, I just want to play and compose, I love doing it.”

 

Weymouth has little doubt that Jason Charos will achieve his goals. She says his background had prepared him for it and the scholarship proves it.

 

“He’s trained with outstanding coaches who gave him outstanding recommendations,” she said. “His technical skills are excellent. Judges always tell us they could award three or four scholarships each year but they can only award one. For Jason to win is huge.”