Five-time Grammy Award-winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and one of Long Island’s most beloved residents, Billy Joel, and his foundation, The Joel Foundation, recently pledged $1.5 million to the Long Island High School for the Arts (LIHSA). The Syosset public school run by Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Service (BOCES), is a master apprentice, arts-centered community with programs ranging from the performing and visual arts to production and managerial arts. 

 

The Hicksville native has been a longtime supporter of the LIHSA. In 2016, his foundation gifted the school $1 million, which helped the LIHSA avoid closing due to low enrollment. He has also taught a master class at the school, and in 2017, Joel gave a $20,000 scholarship to pianist and LIHSA graduate Jeremy Kaplan from Bellmore. The scholarship was presented to the student backstage at Joel's sold-out Madison Square Garden show. In 2018, Nassau BOCES renamed its music and theatre building The Rosalind Joel Conservatory for Music and Theatre, in honor of the Piano Man’s mother.

 

This latest donation will be used on various projects which have not been announced yet. Some of the LIHSA's upcoming plans are establishing a Multimedia Journalism program in the fall and relocating its Game Design, Video Production, Audio Production, and Digital Film Making programs from their current location in Westbury to the Syosset campus.