Trumpeter Herb Alpert’s namesake foundation, co- founded with his wife, singer Lani Hall, is making a $10.1 million donation to Los Angeles City College that will provide all music majors at the school with a tuition-free education, it was reported today.
“LACC is a gem of an institution,” Alpert said regarding the donation, the Los Angeles Times reported this morning. “The biggest motivation was helping kids who don’t have the financial energy to go to a major college. At LACC, they’ve nurtured thousands of dedicated students every year.”
Robert Schwartz, the director of the LACC Foundation, said the gift to the public two-year college, will be transformative.
“It’s the largest gift to an individual community college in the history of Southern California,” he said. “And it’s the second-largest gift in the history of the state.”
The money will be used to create an endowment that will fund tuition for the school’s music majors and help supply them with music instruction, The Times reported. It will also allow LACC to increase the number of music majors from 175 to 250. The free tuition will take effect beginning in the fall of 2017.
The Herb Alpert Foundation has supported the school in the past, beginning with smaller gifts of $10,000 about 15 years ago. That was followed by larger amounts in recent years, including a three-year $300,000 grant, which just ended, that provided scholarship support, among other things, according to The Times.
