Ian McGuire Music Scholarship Fund

We are a proud sponsor of the Temple Music Prep program, and have some exciting news to share with you!

The Youth Chamber Orchestra will be having a concert tomorrow (Saturday, May 3rd), which will be recorded as part of an upcoming album entitled Voyages. Students in the Center for Gifted Young Musicians Youth Chamber Orchestra directed by Aaron Picht will perform. This concert is free and open to the public.

Please join us and RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/cgym-youth-chamber-orchestra-g/582006678230379/

There is also a Community Music Scholars program on Saturday, May 17th! Students in the Community Music Scholars Program at Temple Music Prep ensembles will perform. Including the Philadelphia String Project, Brass & Wind Workshop, CMSP String Orchestra, Wind chamber music ensembles, and CMSP Jazz ensemble. This concert is also free and open to the public.

Please join us and RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/community-music-scholars-progr/595727436851364/

We are very happy to announce our partnership with DrFameus and Horizon Wireless for their show at Cervantes in Denver CO on May 3rd! A portion of the proceeds from every ticket sold will go to support IMMSF and our mission of helping spread music education. Please support by purchasing your ticket today!

🎟 https://etix.com/ticket/p/90124505

Excited to see the Ian McGuire Music Scholarship Fund featured in Temple News! Our endowment at Boyer College of Music and Dance - Temple University will help provide music education to young musicians across Philly for years to come.

The Community Music Scholars Program has been bridging the gap in access to music instruction for over 50 years—making it the perfect way to honor Ian’s legacy.

Read more: https://news.temple.edu/news/2025-01-29/temple-celebrates-generous-gift-music-education-program

Want to support? Visit ianmcguiremusic.org to donate today!

We've extended our 'Buy One Get One Free' Holiday Sale for the McGuire Zwang Duo vinyl record 'Spring Garden' until Friday, Dec 6th at 11:59pm ET! Share the gift of Ian's music with your loved ones, and help support IMMSF at the same time!

♥️ https://ianmcguiremusic.myshopify.com

We’re proud to announce that the Ian McGuire Music Scholarship Fund has committed $50,000 to establish an endowment at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance with Temple Music Prep. This funding supports the Community Music Scholars Program, a longstanding initiative that provides instrumental instruction and ensemble opportunities to 200 young musicians from over 65 Philadelphia public schools.

We’re thrilled to help sustain this vital program and continue our mission of supporting the next generation of musicians. If you’d like to contribute to this cause, please consider donating or volunteering through ianmcguiremusic.org. Your support makes a lasting impact! 🎶

If you like yodeling, accordion and Western Music. You’ll like my father and his band the Harmony Rangers. Likely the late 1940’s. Yeehah!

I Miss My Swiss - Mac McGuire and His Harmony Rangers Unknown release date, I'm assuming mid 1940's.Raphnel Fleming McGuire was better known to Philadelphians as Mac. Born in 1919 in Bartonville (now part of Peo...

I was head of a professional publishing software and services company back in 2000. Every year since 1990 our company would attend the Newspaper Publishers Exposition Conference as a vendor and that year it was held in New Orleans.

At the time my 17-year-old son Ian a budding jazz pianist was moonlighting after school at Kansas City Prime in Manayunk playing jazz standards for tips. He repeatedly heard me tell how after my father died my mother relied on her waitress tips to keep our family of four afloat when I was young. Ian took his tip jar seriously.

Ian planned to graduate high school in 2001 and then go to The Berklee College of Music in Boston to study music performance. I thought it would be great for him to go with me to the trade show in New Orleans so we could visit jazz and blues clubs in town.

Like every year the Newspaper Publishers Association always booked the conference on Father’s Day week because it was a much cheaper venue date. Ian and I checked into the Marriott near the convention center along with everyone else from our company.

At the end of the first day, Ian and I had time on our hands waiting for the company employees to gather in the hotel lobby before heading out to dinner together. While waiting I called the front desk and asked permission for my son to play jazz standards at the second-floor piano bar while we waited for our group. I explained his background and promised he’d play only standards and not scales. It was early so the second floor piano bar was closed and empty. The desk clerk said sure.

Ian sat down at the piano and began to play as I read the newspaper. As he played it was no time before a few hotel guests wandered over drawn to his music. Almost instantly a bartender and a waitress appeared and opened the bar and began service.

The waitress placed a sniffer glass on the piano for tips as Ian rolled through his jazz catalog.
He played the jazz standards as a rolling medley while dollars kept getting stuffed into the tip glass. Then a large group of Japanese tourists popped in.

It wasn’t long before I got the call that our group was in the lobby ready to go. I signaled Ian to wrap it up. Ian closed out his set to a well-deserved applause. As he was leaving Ian signaled to the waitress that his tip glass with money was all hers. That’s my boy.
Great Father’s Day present.

Photo caption: Kansas City Prime in Manayunk PA

Photo by Beth Kaufman.

Forever Thirty-Nine.
Our late son Ian’s birthday is April 26th. In the last two years since his passing the Ian McGuire Music Scholarship Fund (IMMSF) has awarded four Cheltenham High School music students, Ian’s alma mater.

Next week IMMSF plans to announce an endowment created to benefit deserving students in the Philadelphia area through Temple University’s Music program.

If you can give anything to the Ian McGuire Scholarship Fund please do. Donations can be made online at ianmcguiremusic.org. Your gift will serve both immediate and long-term benefits. Thanks in advance and Happy Birthday Ian!

A portion of the proceeds from tonights show at Brooklyn Bowl with ElephantProof ft. Ben Atkind, Talkpeck Soundsystem, and Residual Groove is being donated to the Ian McGuire Music Scholarship Fund! Show your support for IMMSF and enjoy some incredible music by these friends!

Tix: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/00006066B9DD377C

A big thank you to Ben Silver, Putnam Place, BRZY Studio, SM Ink, Clauzee and everyone that participated in the IMMSF raffle at Putnam Place!

Find out more and donate at

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