Tim Cook donates to New Orleans music school after Tulane University speech

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the donation of Apple products including music software training to the center, which was founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He attended a performance at the school following his commencement speech at Tulane University.

Following his commencement address to the students of Tulane University, New Orleans, Tim Cook visited the city's Ellis Marsalis Center for Music where he committed to donating Apple products to the school.

"The centre is an illustration of the unique creativity of this city," Cook told local newspaper The Advocate. "New Orleans can be whatever it wants to be."

Cook met with jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis plus directors including actor/musician Harry Connick Jr, who co-founded the school in 2011. Based in the city's Upper 9th Ward, a neighborhood known as Musicians' Village, the Center is an education establishment and a community venue.

"To have Tim Cook come here and be interested in our center is really monumental," said Connick Jr. "This is a first step, and hopefully this will be the beginning of a long relationship."

L-R: Harry Connick, Jr, Tim Cook, Ellis Marsais Jr in New Orleans (Photo: Apple)

Both the center's 170-seat acoustically-engineered performance hall and housing in the ward were built together from donations raised in the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Tim Cook watched a performance by students in the hall and later tweeted about its community. "Love seeing the gumbo of arts, learning and technology at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music," he said, "where community becomes family."

The center already uses Apple hardware and software to produce music and it's not been revealed what specifically Cook has donated. However, it does include software training.

Following his Tulane University speech and visit to the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, Cook returned to Cupertino to attend the official opening of Apple Park.

The report of his visit in The Advocate paper was first spotted by 9to5mac.