Donations

Support Jazz Inspired, Inc., Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired on NPR and podcast, and Jazz: Listening for Life school programs. Please read below for more information. We appreciate your support!

Mail checks to: Judy Carmichael Jazz Inspired, Inc. Box 360 Sag Harbor, NY 11963

Donations of $100 or more receive one of Judy’s CDs as a thank you gift. Donations of $200 or more receive Judy’s memoir, Swinger! A Jazz Girl’s Adventures from Hollywood to Harlem or Great Inspirations: 22 Years of Jazz Inspired on NPR or Judy’s music book of stride arrangements, You Can Play Stride Piano.

Please indicate your choice when you make your donation on the form or email us at info@jazzinspired.com.

Read below to learn more about the mission of Jazz Inspired, Inc.

Jazz Inspired, Inc. is a 501c3 not-for-profit foundations. All donations are tax-deductible as required by law.

American Hotel Champagne Luncheon, May 4th, 2025

A special celebration of my radio show/podcast Jazz Inspired and educational outreach programs for Jazz: Listening for Life as described below.

A $150 donation per person assures your place in this intimate setting. Please click button to ensure your spot.

Jazz: Listening for Life

Our mission is to improve listening skills, and inspire the belief that music not only enhances one’s life, but is essential. With money raised with our ongoing efforts, we finance classes in schools across the country, conducting workshops about jazz, listening, and how to better appreciate live music performance.

Our musicians are full-time, award-winning concert artists, who bring a wide perspective, as well as a variety of stylistic influences to the project. Each has extensive experience in music performance and education.

We’ve asked young people of all ages to be involved in this fundraising effort too, spreading the word through social media, because they want high-level professional musicians to come to their schools and this project makes that possible. Please donate anything you can!

Read more about Jazz: Listening for Life:
Click here to read article.
Judy Carmichael: Listening for Life
Pianist and radio host launches program to bring jazz musicians to schools across the country.
Jazz Times, by Lee Mergner, January 2011

Better listening skills enable a richer experience of life. 
How can jazz make us better listeners?

Studies confirm what we all suspect: attention spans are shrinking, and while most have cell phones to their ears or headphones on, no one’s listening.

BETTER LISTENING: Musicians learn to discriminate between different pitch and tone quality, and improvising jazz musicians, in particular, must be intensely engaged to anticipate what comes next, when having a musical conversation with another.

BETTER FOCUS: Musicians have 40% less hearing loss as they age, because of their acquired listening skills. “If you spend a lot of your life interacting with sound in an active manner, then your nervous system has made lots of sound-to-meaning connections that can strengthen your auditory system.” Nina Kraus, Director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University.

BETTER COMPREHENSION: Jazz is a complex musical form that engages the listeners and, like all great art, is enjoyed even more deeply with greater understanding. Understanding complexity increases intelligence.

The Jazz: Listening for Life mission is to teach jazz appreciation and listening skills from the greatest listeners in the world: jazz musicians.

Donors

Jazz: Listening for Life was created with a generous grant from Henry and Gilda Block and the Ken Kolker Foundation to Jazz Inspired, Inc. which supports educational programs and the oral histories made though Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired.

Thank you to the following additional donors:

Jennifer Adair, Mary Ellen Adipietro, David Alpern, Brooke Anderson, Apple Bank for Savings, Harry Allen, Dahlia F. Aman, Ozell Austin, Jochen Axer. Craig Bailey, Robert Bamberger, Dick Barrett, Nada Barry, Jeff Beck, Steven Beck, Laurie Black, Arline Blake, Demetrius Bonin, Susan Breitenbach, Joan Brill, Henry and Gilda Block, Demetrius Bonin, David Bray, Craig Brenner, Armand Briones, Steven Brown, Melanie Carbone, Mike Caplin, David Carter, Milo Carver, John B. Chamberlin, James Chirillo, Alix Cohen, David Cohen, James Consiglio, Julia Costa, Dorothy Cohen, David Cohen, Julie Costa, Conrad Comeaux, Keven & Bonnie Condrin, James Consiglio, Robert Copeland, Adolph Cramer, Sandra Crystal, Julie Curlen, Jim Czak/Nola Studios, Eric and Margie Daniels, Blythe Danner, William Davis, Bradley Dechter, Jon Diat, Walter Dietrich, Ellen Dioguardi, Robert Doe, Mary Ellen Donnelly, Patricia Doyle, Yasmine Djerradine, Donna & Mitchell Schneiderman Drach, Jim Durning, James Dybas, Misty Evers, Robert Esdale, Lillian Faffer, Peggy Feder, Joseph & Angela Figliolo, Stan Feminella, Lachlan Ferguson, Douglas Fleisher, Chris Flory, Meaghen Foley, Dan Fortune, Janet Fox, Robert Frye, Stuart Fujiyama, Irene Fulrath, Haja Garone, Greg Garland, Nina Garland, Mark Goldstein, Lance Gotko, George Gee, Lois Gibbons, Robert Geissberger, Vince Giordano, Stan Glinka, Mikal Gohring, Mark Goldstein, David Gribin, Jan Healey-Grien, Deborah Guiffre, Don Hahn, Steve Hamilton, Scott Hanley, James Harding, Mary Harrison, Teri Hartman, Mike Hashim, Nina Healy, John &Constance Herrell, Allison Heinen, Monika Herzig, Luule Hewson, Jeffrey Hicken, Allison Heinen, Harlan Hill, Carol Holley, Jim Hopp, Nina Howes, Malcolm Hughes and Lydia Barnes-Hughes, Matthew Hunt, Emma Huseman, Eugene Hwan, Marilyn Hwan, Geoffrey Isaac, Ruth Isaac, Harry Javer, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Virginia Johnson, Elizabeth Jones, Barbara Kanter, Dwaine Keller, Kate Kerr, Ken Kolker Foundation, Catherine Jossett, Wendy Becker Kalkstein, Andrea Kaplan, Kate Kerr, Carl Kaplan, Don Kasten, Shirley Kaufman, Rochelle Kirschner, William Knese, Fr. Dennis Knight, The Ken Kolker Foundation, John Kramer, Romany Kramoris, Karen Krams, Marion Kraskow, Darlene Langhorne, Simon Lasky, Howard Lippman, David Lee, Brad Lentz, Martin Levenstein, Nathaniel Leventhal, Seth Light, Andrew Linsky, JP & Chris Lipa, Donna Lodge, Jackie Lyle, Gene Marlow, Beth Marshel, Steve Marston, Patricia Maines, Martinez, Arthur Mattel, Tom Mayer, Susan McDowell, Daniel & Irene McKillop, Eileen Melniker, Lynn Menefee, Hermine Meschel, Nancy Meyer, Holly Middleton, John Mikel, Jonathan Miller, Deborah and Ezra Millstein, Rhoda Minowitz, Tony Monte, Christine Moore, Richard Mothes, Jr., Dan Mullane, John Musker, Lee Musiker, Mark Naison, Nate Najar, Amy Olson, Ed Ornowski, Tim Owens, Carole Palagyi, Jane Pahr, Jackie Pam, Marian Papp, Kevin Parichan, Daniel Phillips, Harry Phillips, III, Roberta Piccoli, Mary Powell, Pat Preu, Anthony Prevete, Melissa Pugash, Erica Prud’homme, PSEG, Evie Ramunno, Carmella Rapazzo, Doris Reid, Lana Reign, Robert Rettig, Todd Robbins, Terry Robson, Jamie Romanow, Douglas Rosefsky, Mary Rosenbaum, Beth Rosenthal, Steve Ross, Thomas Royal, Tim Runyan, Catherine Russell, Kenneth Sale, Garrett Sampson, Martin Sampson, Duane Saxton, Judy Schaffer, Sandy Stewart, Mike Schell, Lisa Schiff, Judith Schlesinger, Martha Schiff, Ted Schmitz, Richard Schwartz, Sonny Shotland, John Shelley, Martin Shore, Richard Sigberman, Cindy Simmons, Shannon Simmons, Margaret Slayton, Charles Smith, Earl Sulzbacher, Allen Sviridoff, Marin Spinelli, Steinway and Sons, J.T. Stine III, Eva Swan, Marla Schwenk, Douglas Steinbrech, Sandy Stewart, J.T. Stine III, David, Sykes, Rhapsody Synder, Shirley Tennyson, Bill Tew, Roger Thompson, Sara Throne, Iris Topel, Gregory Toroian, May Trent, Irka Tkaczuk, Dieter von Lehsten, Judith Waldock, John and Jill Walsh, Tony Walton, Carl Watanabe, Marge Wardrop, Ken Watson, R.C. Watts, Catherine Weber, Patricia Weiss, Judy Wexler, Eileen Winterble, Toby Wright, Chris Young, Ross Ziskind

Mission Statement

The goal of Jazz Inspired, Inc. a not for profit 501c3 corporation, is to bring to the public, particularly school age children, more awareness of America’s classical music – JAZZ – and to promote better understanding of the arts and the creative process.

These goals will be achieved through several means including but not limited to the following:

1. Residencies in various schools by jazz pianist and historian Judy Carmichael where she will discuss the history of jazz and how individual creativity plays a large role in the continuing creation of this American art form.

2. Production and promotion of the weekly public radio show Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired which is offered free to Public Radio stations across the country and (when the funds are available) will be disseminated as oral histories to schools nationwide. By listening to the show, students are exposed not only to jazz, but to great artists discussing their work and their inspiration. Young listeners gain new insight to jazz, an understanding of creativity and a source for their own artistic inspiration .

Funds raised are used to: subsidize these educational programs when schools cannot afford to pay for them, contribute to the continuing production of Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired radio program and enable these oral histories to be distributed to schools nationwide.

Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired is made possible by generous donations from listeners. To be a friend of Jazz Inspired, Inc., send your tax deductible contribution to:

Jazz Inspired, Inc.
Post Office Box 360
Sag Harbor, New York 11963