A weekly local paper in the Southborough, Massachusetts area, the Community Advocate, has profiled Mr. Clark’s Big Band.

“For residents of small, tight-knit Southborough, the morning of Jan. 11, 2012 brought with it deep sorrow and mourning as news of 12-year-old Eric Green’s passing swept through the town,” Sue Wambolt wrote in the Advocate. “A seventh-grade student and member of the P. Brent Trottier Middle School big band, Green died in his sleep from an undiagnosed heart condition.”

“While friends, neighbors and townsfolk struggled to come to terms with the loss, big band teacher Jamie Clark demonstrated the power of music to heal wounds as he guided his students through an emotionally challenging year,” she continued. “Mr. Clark’s Big Band: A Year of Laughter, Tears and Jazz in a Middle School Band Room, penned by resident and ‘big band mother’ Meredith O’Brien, chronicles this journey and gives an inside look at navigating bereavement in middle school.”

Image credit: Community Advocate.