NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Corey Staggers is 28 and grew up in New Haven. He was a little kid- a second grader, just 8-years-old- when a principal sent the “active” young man with a love of basketball down to music teacher Bill Flucker.
The idea was to give the young man- who could have drifted in the wrong direction- something new to try.
“She said I want you to teach him,” Flucker recalled.
Staggers and Flucker got back together recently at “Music Back Then” in West Haven to reminisce about those days gone by.
Staggers said he didn’t like music at all at the beginning. But that didn’t last very long and the talent flourished.
Corey’s mom knew early on that her son had a chance to be somebody special.
“When I saw him playing with adults at 14 or 15-years-old I was like ‘he has something’ he’s going somewhere,” his mom Monique Ledbetter said.
After graduating from high school, he was on to Western Connecticut State University on a music scholarship.
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone. 
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone. 
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone. 
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone. 
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone. 
Connecticut Up Close: Teachers’ guidance leads New Haven man Corey Staggers to successful career playing saxophone.
“The instrument to him is like a best friend- and it’s part of him,” Flucker said.
These days, Staggers lives in Los Angeles playing the saxophone professionally at everything from wedding receptions to music festivals in front of thousands, and recently the Los Angeles Urban League Brunch, where he met President Joe Biden.
“It’s unreal, just being at these places, coming from where I started to now,” Staggers said.
It’s an unlikely journey with the help of fate, talent and a music teacher and mentor whose been a believer in his ability since that principal sent him his way two decades ago.
“He makes me feel like I have a purpose,” Flucker said.
Staggers will play locally at Music Back Then on Oct. 18.