One aspect of the mission statement of the 501C3 Frank Brown International Foundation for Music is "to reach into schools to enrich lives and encourage creativity through music." This goal is achieved by various means.

Over the past several years $30,000 has been presented to college bound Baldwin County and Escambia County, Florida high school seniors. With the support of local school systems, the foundation solicits essays from students asking them to describe their interest in music, the role it plays in their lives and the way they see it shaping their future.

These essays are reviewed by a committee consisting of songwriters, music educators and foundation board members. Having received a number of compelling essays and after careful deliberation, the committee recently presented each of the following deserving students from the graduating class of 2022 with $1,500 scholarships to further their educational goals:

• Taylor Williams of Bayside Academy who will be attending Loyola University pursuing a degree in their Music Industry Studies program.
• Nathan Higginson of Gulf Shores High who will be a Music Major at the University of Mobile.
• Chloe Rabin of West Florida High who will be attending the University of West Florida majoring in Music Education.
• Trevon Andrews of Pine Forest High who will be attending Florida A&M University majoring in Music Education.

The Foundation is also involved with the Larry Butler Memorial Music Fund at the University of West Florida. Larry Butler was a multi-Grammy Award winning music producer and songwriter and a Pensacola native. Established in 2015, the fund has realized over $150,000 in donations in large part due to the efforts of the Frank Brown Foundation for Music. These monies have supported UWF music department students travel to competitions and performances all over the world in addition to seeing improvements to campus classrooms and studios, as well as providing music lessons to underprivileged kids.

The 501C3 Frank Brown International Foundation for Music produces the 38-year-old, iconic and nationally recognized Frank Brown International Songwriters' Festival each year in November. Over an eleven-day period, thousands of visitors from all over the United States, as well as several foreign countries, come to see and hear over 200 Grammy Award winning and up and coming songwriters perform their songs and tell the stories of how those songs came to exist.

Intimate performances take place in venues from Silverhill, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama, across Perdido Key and into downtown Pensacola, Florida. This year's festival will take place from Nov. 3 through 13 and will be dedicated to and in memory of the festival founder, Joe Gilchrist who passed away recently.

A major event associated with this year's festival and in conjunction with Pensacola's Foo Foo Festival and UWF will be a performance of hit songwriters staged with the Pensacola Symphony. This event will take place at the Saenger Theatre on Nov. 8 within the overall Nov. 3 through 13 dates of the Frank Brown Songwriters' Festival and the Nov. 3 through 14 dates of the Foo Foo Festival.

For more information about the Frank Brown Foundation for Music and Songwriters' Festival, please contact Foundation/Festival Director, Andy Haynes, at andy@fbisf.com or (251) 978-6213.