Morgan Wallen is making another huge donation to his hometown school district.
Through his Morgan Wallen Foundation, along with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, they donated three double basses, seven cellos, seven violas and nine violins, totaling $38,717 in value, to West High School in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.
They are starting a new orchestra program, and according to Knox News, the Morgan Wallen Foundation was responsible for funding for the instruments, and the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation will handle the purchasing and make sure the instruments get to the school.
The school is currently in the process of upgrading their storage capacity in order to fit all of these new instruments in the building, and West High School orchestra director Rachel Peña says it will set them up for “a generation of music” at the school in terms of the orchestra program:
“That should set us up for a generation of music moving forward here at West to where I think the program could definitely keep going.”
She expects the instruments to arrive in March, and the West High School orchestra program is currently in its first year with a total 25 students participating, though its likely that number could double during the next school year as they have more resources to include more students and bring that love of music to a much larger group.
Peña feels that orchestra is underrepresented in East Tennessee, though it’s not for lack of interest, but of course UT football and things of that nature tend to take precedent, so hopefully this new donation will attract more students into the music programs going forward:
“I think orchestra in East Tennessee historically is not as represented. We have a lot of band enthusiasts in East Tennessee as it makes sense, right, with UT and football and all that.
But orchestra is more of like a smaller population, and so it’s exciting to have resources for it because I feel like our band programs are really robust, and so we need to do that work for the orchestra programs.”
It’s a very generous donation, and I’m sure all of the brand new instruments will be put to very good use, and of course, it’s not the first big donation Morgan has made to his local school district.
Wallen went to high school in Knoxville, and he has used his foundation to educate the next generation of both musicians and athletes, including $35,000 for Gibbs High School’s band, chorus and baseball programs and a $1.2 million donation for the school’s athletic facilities over the last several years.
It’s clear how much both of those aspects of his formative years still mean to him, and I imagine it’s also a dream come true for him to be able to give back to the place that shaped his love of music and sports.
Morgan is gearing up to hit the road on his extensive Still The Problem Tour, and fans think he might be putting out a deluxe edition of his album of the same name sometime this year too. His most recent studio release of Nothing But Thieves’ “Graveyard Whistling”:
Still The Problem Tour Dates
April 10 || Minneapolis, Minn. || U.S. Bank Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
April 11 || Minneapolis, Minn. || U.S. Bank Stadium w/ HARDY, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
April 18 || Tuscaloosa, Ala. || Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Vincent Mason, Zach John King
May 1 || Las Vegas, Nev. || Allegiant Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
May 2 || Las Vegas, Nev. || Allegiant Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
May 8 || Indianapolis, Ind. || Lucas Oil Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Hudson Westbrook, Zach John King
May 9 || Indianapolis, Ind. || Lucas Oil Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Flatland Cavalry, Zach John King
May 15 || Gainesville, Fla. || Ben Hill Griffin Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
May 16 || Gainesville, Fla. || Ben Hill Griffin Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
May 29 || Denver, Colo. || Empower Field at Mile High w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
May 30 || Denver, Colo. || Empower Field at Mile High w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Vincent Mason
June 5 || Pittsburgh, Penn. || Acrisure Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
June 6 || Pittsburgh, Penn. || Acrisure Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
June 19 || Chicago, Ill. || Soldier Field w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
June 20 || Chicago, Ill. || Soldier Field w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Zach John King
June 26 || Clemson, SC. || Clemson Memorial Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
June 27 || Clemson, SC. || Clemson Memorial Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
July 17 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Brooks & Dunn, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
July 18 || Baltimore, Md. || M&T Bank Stadium w/ Ella Langley, Gavin Adcock, Jason Scott & The High Heat
July 24 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ Thomas Rhett, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
July 25 || Ann Arbor, Mich. || Michigan Stadium w/ HARDY, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
July 31 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ Brooks & Dunn, Hudson Westbrook, Blake Whiten
August 1 || Philadelphia, Penn. || Lincoln Financial Field w/ Ella Langley, Hudson Westbrook, Blake White
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.whiskeyriff.com ’
