Eric Sayre and the Guyana Lutheran Music Academy

 I hope everyone’s year is wrapping up nicely. As you may have heard, I will not be returning to Southwest next year. I am sad to be leaving such a passionate and supportive group of staff, students, and parents, but I am eager to begin my next adventure…

Next year, I will begin to work fulltime on a very meaningful project of mine: The Guyana Lutheran Music Academy (www.glma.gy). After two years of working afterschool and on weekends, my team and I are now well underway with plans to open a full-time music academy in New Amsterdam, Guyana, September of 2014.  The academy will accommodate 240 students a week, taught by a team of four U.S. teachers traveling to Guyana for 10-month stints.  The Guyanese Lutheran Church has already generously donated a school building and housing for our teachers!

I will spend this next year, still in MN, building the program, continuing to design the curriculum, and finishing up our fundraising needs (only $115K to go!).  I will actually leave for Guyana in the late spring of next year.

I am excited to move forward, but still very sad to be leaving.  I have always been and will remain deeply invested in the Southwest music program and its students, and hope to return to it someday soon.

If you are interested in staying informed of our progress, please email me at ericsayre@glma.gy.

Thanks, and have a great summer!

Eric Sayre

SW Band Director