Last year, the Trombone Shorty Foundation and Tulane University launched the Trombone Shorty Academy, a music education and performance curriculum that aims to develop musicians from New Orleans’ under-served high schools. This year the foundation and the University are set to expand the academy with the addition of the Fredman Music Business Institute, a program open to local area high schoolers interested in learning about the business side of the music industry.

Fredman Music Business Institute at the Trombone Shorty Academy will hold auditions for its inaugural class on Thursday, January 16, 2014 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the band room of Tulane's Dixon Hall.

Esteemed producer and audio engineer Chris Finney will serve as the institute’s lead instructor. His long list of credits include contributions to albums by Gov’t Mule, Harry Connick Jr., Shannon McNally, Randy Newman, Bonerama and Marcus Miller among others. In 2008, Finney won a Grammy Award from his work on Dr. John’s The City that Care Forgot, and in 2011, Finney took home another, this time for the Rebirth Brass Band’s The Rebirth of New Orleans.

On Thursday, January 16, 2014, the Fredman Music Business Institute will hold auditions for its inaugural class from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the band room of Tulane’s Dixon Hall. No prerequisites are required to attend the institute, which encourages all local area high school students interested in music business to try out.

Students accepted into the institute will receive an iPad, course-specific software and assist in the production of the Shorty Fest — the foundation’s annual fundraiser — slated for Thursday, May 1.

More information is available at www.tromboneshortyfoundation.org.