In a letter to supporters, founding director Ned Corman has announced that 2008 will be the final year for The Commission Project. Although programming will continue until June 30, there will be no 2008 edition of the Swing N' Jazz Festival.

Founded in 1994, TCP sends top professional musicians and composers to schools in the United States and Canada, exposing students to jazz and classical music. The project commissions new pieces from composers who work directly with the students.

In addition to Rochester, this year TCP funded programs in New York City, Chicago, Tallahassee, Vancouver and many other cities. The project has affected an estimated 25,000 students over its 14 years.

"I feel like we've accomplished a great deal," says Corman "It's been wonderful."

Corman founded his first commission project while a music teacher at Penfield High School in 1984. The Penfield Commission Project is still thriving today. After leaving Penfield, Corman began TCP with one residency affecting 25 students in 1994. This year the program's composers will work with an estimated 1,500 students.

But, as TCP has grown, Corman has felt the strain.

"We have not been able to find enough funding to afford an administrative staff sufficient to grow TCP past its current status," wrote Corman. "Truth is, a lot of TCP's success has been possible only because so very many did so very much for so very little."

In Rochester the legacy of TCP goes well beyond educational programs.

The TCP's yearly Swing 'n Jazz Festival --- with artists like Jon Faddis, Stanley Turrentine, Freddy Cole, and Paquito D'Rivera --- in some ways led to the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

Corman, who brought RIJF promoter John Nugent to Rochester for a Swing 'n Jazz Festival in the late 1990s, had seen the impact of the (classical) Spoleto Festival on the cultural and economic life of Charleston, SC. By introducing Nugent, who was then promoter of the Stockholm Jazz Festival, to potential government and business partners, Corman paved the way for a similar festival in Rochester.

Corman, who looks forward to catching up on all the books he's been meaning to read, emphasizes that TCP will run for a final year and still needs support.

Before last year's Swing 'n Jazz Festival, legendary trombonist (and former music director for James Brown) Fred Wesley talked about his dedication to TCP:

"I know I was saved from the streets by music and some of these kids are being saved from the streets by music. That's why I'm a member of The Commission Project."