New York Daily News

Rocker Joel showers another $1.5 million on L.I. arts school

- BY KARU F. DANIELS

Piano Man, you’ve got us feelin’ all right. Billy Joel’s foundation has made another hefty donation to a Long Island high school. A $1.5 million pledge was confirmed Monday to Long Island High School for the Arts in Syosset.

“We are incredibly proud of LIHSA’s momentum and positive impact on the next generation of artists from Long Island,” Billy Joel and his daughter Alexis Joel said in a statement to the Daily News.

It’s not the first time the Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer rescued the school from closure — six years ago, he gifted them a $1.5 million as well.

In December 2017, the building that houses the school’s music and theater programs was renamed in honor of his mother Rosalind Joel, who died in 2014 at age 92.

Earlier that year, Joel (photo) gave a scholarshi­p of $20,000 to a pianist who recently graduated from the specialize­d school to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He also previously taught a master class for students and has visited them in their classrooms on the Syosset campus.

Though born in the Bronx, the “New York State of Mind” crooner grew up in Hicksville, L.I.

The Long Island High School for the Arts trains future performers and profession­als as part of the Nassau County Board of Cooperativ­e Educationa­l Services.

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