SOUTHEAST GUITARIST MOVING ON

Thomas Benjamin Jackson, a dual-credit high school student studying in the Music Department in the School of Visual and Performing Arts has recently been accepted into the undergraduate Classical Guitar Programs at The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. These music schools and their guitar programs are among the top-tier institutions in this country. Ben joins a growing list of students from the Southeast Missouri State University Guitar Program to pursue undergraduate or graduate studies in some of our country's most esteemed music programs.

Ben began his classical guitar studies in the Southeast Music Academy and has been studying in the Music Department with Mr. Patrick Rafferty, himself a graduate of both Southeast and the Peabody Conservatory. Ben has performed extensively as a soloist in the region and as a member of the Southeast Guitar Ensemble. In addition to appearances in Master Class Performances on the Southeast Campus and in St. Louis with the St. Louis Classical Guitar Society, Ben competed last summer in the Guitar Foundation of America's International Youth Competition in Louisville, KY.

Ben will begin his undergraduate studies as a Guitar Major in Fall 2014, studying at Peabody under Julian Gray or at Indiana under Ernesto Bitetti, two of this country's most highly-regarded guitar pedagogues. A high school senior from Sikeston, Ben currently teaches guitar at Collins Music in Sikeston.

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