KVIG Informative

Some instruments at Legacy High School hadn’t been replaced since the school opened in 2006. A donation from a touring musician’s foundation is finally replacing them — filling a gap the district’s own budget left open.

Legacy High School’s band, orchestra and mariachi programs received $38,761 worth of new instruments and equipment this summer through the Morgan Wallen Foundation’s Tour Give Back Program, according to Clark County School District. More than 30 students across the three programs are set to benefit directly.

The donation included violins, trombones, clarinets, brass instruments, saxophones, and mariachi staples like trumpets and violas, along with individual mouthpieces — an item that matters because students had previously been sharing equipment, raising hygiene concerns the new gear is expected to resolve.

Donate

Donate

Some of the instruments being replaced hadn’t been swapped out since Legacy High School first opened its doors in 2006. The shortage had gotten severe enough that some students were unable to play at all for lack of available equipment.

Mariachi and orchestra teacher Tara Ogden Skousen said the donation will do more than fill equipment gaps, framing it as a boost to both the physical resources and the morale of her classroom. She said the new instruments open the door to playing a wider range of music and retiring instruments that had broken down and gone unrepaired.

Senior band student Natalia Agredano said the added instruments create more opportunities for students to try instruments they hadn’t previously had access to, calling a bigger band an unambiguous good for everyone in the program.

Donate

Donate

Legacy High School holds a distinct position in North Las Vegas as the only high school offering a complete performing arts slate, spanning dance, theater, guitar, choir, mariachi, orchestra and band.

A donation from a country singer’s charitable foundation is doing what two decades of school district budgets apparently couldn’t: replacing instruments Legacy High School students had been playing on since before most of them were born. Whether other CCSD music programs get the same kind of outside intervention, or simply keep playing on broken equipment until someone notices, isn’t something a foundation gift alone can guarantee.