Atlanta teen musician gets into prestigious school for clarinet

ATLANTA — A junior at Atlanta's Maynard Jackson High School is saying goodbye to family and friends to chase the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kevin Belcher is going to study classic clarinet at a prestigious academy of the arts.

Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen was in Midtown, where the community has come together to help Belcher pursue his dreams.

The private school that Belcher will attend is very hard to get into and even harder to pay for. But family, friends and hundreds of people he's never even met have come together to help.

"I just love the way the clarinet sounds," Belcher said. "I've grown to love it. I just love making music."

Belcher has been playing the clarinet since sixth grade. His mother, Twala Clifton, said he practiced up to six hours a day to get into the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Northern Michigan, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country.

"He's had so many "no's," Clifton said. "But this time, he got a yes."

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Belcher said he couldn't believe it when he got the news he was accepted.

"I screamed. I was just shaking," Belcher said. "I was excited. And I thought like, 'Why me?'"

There was just one problem: the more than $60,000 tuition and room and board.

Belcher's 6th grade teacher, Tara Byrdsong, set up a GoFundMe and hundreds of people responded, including a who's who of classical music.

"Brian Hecht and Marci Gurnow are like, they are big time," Byrdsong said. "They're right here in Atlanta (at the ) Atlanta Symphony. And I was like, 'Whoa!'. I can't believe I'm getting phone calls and emails from these people, you know?"

Belcher is very grateful. He said after Interlochen, he hopes to attend Julliard, join a major orchestra, and then play Carnegie Hall.

“I just feel blessed and really honored,” Belcher said. “I just want to make them proud and make myself proud. I’m just ready to go!”

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help raise money for Belcher’s journey to Interlochen.

Cox Media Group