LaGuardia High's All-Star Alumni Return For Benefit Jazz Concert

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Nearly three dozen jazz musicians who attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts will converge on one stage Monday night to raise money for their alma mater.

The all-star lineup of musicians performing at the iconic Manhattan school's Concert Hall include Paquito d'Rivera, Dave Glasser, Jon Gordon, Marcus Miller and Arturo O'Farrill.

LINK: More Information And Tickets For LaGuardia High Benefit Concert

"Our mission is to raise money for the school and to ensure that the arts education continues in perpetuity," Barbara Engel, executive director of the Alumni and Friends of LaGuardia High School, told CBS 2's Andrea Grymes during an in-studio interview Sunday. "And so we've called together 34 alums who graduated from the school and have notable careers. They come together on one stage for one night to raise money for the school, and it's an amazing event."

O'Farrill, founder of the Grammy-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, called the arts "the single most important issue facing us today."

"The arts humanizes us," he said. "It teaches us about other cultures. It teachers us about us one another. It unifies us in a way that nothing else does. And I think the arts is really the key to the future of our society."

Engel said the benefit concert will be fun for both the audience and the musicians. But she also said the performance will show "the kids who are in the school today what their legacy is."

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