The Paducah Symphony Orchestra is making plans to restore the Walter C. Jetton school and turn it into a music academy. In a Facebook video Thursday, PSO said the academy is expected to open in 2022.
Art Davis, an educator with the Paducah Symphony, said in the video most students who go to college on a music scholarship have had private training. He said the music academy will make opportunities for private lessons more accessible.
“When you look at students who have gotten scholarships, it’s usually students who have received private lessons,” Davis said. “That’s why it’s important to have a facility like this.”
Davis said lessons at the academy will be affordable and possibly free for some eligible students.
PSO Executive Director Reece King said in the video increased music education and college scholarship opportunities will bring noticeable change in the community in years to come.
“This project is not something that you look up tomorrow and say the community is different because we have a music academy,” King said. “It may take ten or twenty years, but you will look up and see that ‘Wow, the community is a different place, because we have a music academy.’”
