A teenaged Toronto trumpet player attempting to crowdfund his education at one of the world’s most prestigious performing arts conservatories plans to “pay it forward” by helping other young musicians overcome financial hurdles to their success.

William Leathers claims he was one of only three trumpeters chosen out of nearly 1,000 who auditioned to join the undergraduate program at the Juilliard School in New York this summer. The 17-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. launched a crowdfunding campaign to help pay the $364,000 tuition cost of his four-year education.

So far, Leathers’ YouCaring page has attracted more than $96,000 in donations -- an amount he said will be sufficient to bankroll his freshman year at the exclusive school.

“It’s really shocking and overwhelming,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday. “It’s really a good feeling that people care about the arts and they really want to see me succeed.”

Leathers’ musical career began on the piano, when he was just four years old. He remembers amazing his mother with his appreciation of classical music as a toddler.

“She was watching TV and I was on the ground playing (with) LEGO. This Olive Garden commercial came on with an opera singer. I was sort of looking off the TV, not directly at the screen, sort of at the speakers. Sort of like a blind person watching TV. I said to my mom, ‘That is very beautiful music,’” he said.

Leathers eventually took up playing the trumpet. By 12, he became the youngest to play that instrument for the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

He grew up idolizing Wynton Marsalis, James Thompson and Christopher Martin, with dreams of becoming a classical and jazz soloist. He knew acceptance at Juilliard would be a key steppingstone in achieving that, and the odds of getting in would be against him.

“I emailed one of the students at Juilliard . . . just to ask her how many trumpet players got in this year. She said, ‘Well, three undergrads. Two master’s students,’” said Leathers.

The long odds were easier to handle thanks to encouragement from a Grammy Award-winning mentor.

“Hearing that I belong there from different people like my teacher, one of the greatest trumpet players of all time, Wynton Marsalis, hearing all these comments from people. That gave me confidence that I would get in,” Leathers said.

With his initial goal of funding his first year at Juilliard met, he’s decided to keep the campaign alive to create a scholarship foundation for young artists who cannot meet the financial requirements of top arts schools.

“What I decided to do is take 10 per cent of the final amount, whatever it is, and start a foundation for other artists who work hard and get into the schools that they want to get into, but are financially in trouble and can’t get there,” he said. “If we do get to the four years (worth of donations), which is the new goal on the fundraising website, then 100 per cent of every extra dollar after that is going to go to this foundation as well.”