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Decatur boy plays trumpet for hospital workers

A 12-year-old Decatur boy is using his music to thank healthcare workers at a nearby hospital for all they’re doing to fight COVID-19.

Nearly every night for the past month, Jason Zgonc has been playing his trumpet at shift-change at Emory Decatur Hospital. He’s only missed a couple of nights, so far, due to weather.

“I think they have a really hard job, especially at this time, because of all the people getting sick,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

He and his mom, Karen Zgonc, got the idea after seeing videos of musicians in New York serenading hospital workers there from their apartments.

“There’s actually a New York City trumpet player who was playing trumpet off the rooftop of his apartment,” Zgonc recalls. “And I was showing these videos to my son and we kind of just decided, ‘Hey we live right down the street from Emory Decatur Hospital, what if we went and played for them?’”

>>Listen to Sandra Parrish’s full on-air report below.

Jason’s talent comes naturally. Karen owns Ztunes Music, which teaches music lessons, in Atlanta and his dad, Nathan, plays trombone in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He sometimes joins his son playing outside the hospital.

The sixth grader plays for his band at Renfroe Middle School and made the Georgia Middle School All-State Band. He was also a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Trumpet Competition that unfortunately got cancelled due to the pandemic.

“I love playing the trumpet because I think I’m good at it and I like the way it feels in my hands,” says Jason.

Karen says right now he has no plans of ending his mini-concerts which begin around 6:45 p.m. and go until just after 7 p.m.

“Originally we didn’t know if we were going to do this every day or maybe just once. And after one time, he got in the car and asked to go back,” she says.

Jason isn’t sure what his future holds when it comes to music, but he does have some definite goals.

“I want to play the National Anthem at a Braves game and I also want to try to beat my teacher for a job,” he says with a chuckle.

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