Beginning Saturday, February 16 and continuing through March on a weekly basis, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation will host educational workshops for teens interested in audio engineering for concerts and recording studios.

Applications are now open for the program, which is an expanded version of a program the Jazz & Heritage Foundation piloted last spring. Open to students between the ages of 13 and 17, the workshops are made possible with support from the Country Music Association Foundation. However, the lessons taught in the workshop do not apply to any specific genre.

Though free, the workshops have limited space and students must be able to attend each Saturday between February 16 and March 23, except for March 2. Following the end of these Level 1 classes, students will have the option to advance to Level 2, which will be held during a week-long intensive session June 3-7. The workshops will be taught by GRAMMY-winning producer Chris Finney and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s production manager, Jason Doyle. Additional instruction will come from the Foundation’s assistant production manager, Khalid Hafiz.

“Since the Jazz & Heritage Center came online, we have continually increased our educational programming to make this incredible resource available to more young people in our community,” said Don Marshall, Executive Director of the Jazz & Heritage Foundation. “First, we doubled the size of our flagship program, the Heritage School of Music, from 50 to 100 students per week. Then we doubled it again by adding new classes for beginners – and providing free instruments. We put all sorts of audio technology in the building with the goal of turning it into a hub of education – not just in music performance, but in the technical side of music as well,” Marshall added. “By adding these new workshops – and holding them in the same building at the same time – we’re taking another step in that direction.”

For more on how to join the workshops, please see the online application form here.