Little Kids Rock is a charity in the United States that encourages and enables children to play popular music. It is a nonprofit 501 organization and is based in Verona, New Jersey. It provides free music instruction and instruments to public school districts across the country. Their 'Modern Band' curriculum is rooted in popular music and their teaching methods are rooted in the teaching music as a language, with a heavy emphasis on composition and improvisation. Charity Navigator has given the charity a 4-star rating.
History
The program dates back to 1996 when David Wish, an elementary school teacher, began giving free guitar lessons to his students. After a short time, he started recruiting other volunteers to help him with his efforts, including celebrity supporters like Bonnie Raitt and Carlos Santana. In 2002, Little Kids Rock became a nonprofit organization, and in the following years, the programme was extended to New York City and several other public schools districts.
Supporters
Little Kids Rock is supported by a significant number of prominent music industry figures. In May 2015, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, Chad Smith, was given the "Livin' The Dream Award" at the first annual Little Kids Rock Family Jam benefit at Facebook's Menlo Park campus for his work to help expand public schoolchildren's access to music education. The benefit raised over $85,000 to help provide music education for students.
Amp Up NYC Initiative
and Little Kids Rock have partnered with the New York City Department of Education to expand the district's Modern Band music program to an additional 60,000 students in 600 city schools. The Amp Up NYC initiative is the largest private investment to date in a city's public school music education program. The donated services and resources for this initiative are estimated at $10 million. Berklee College of Music and Little Kids Rock will contribute teacher training, Modern Band curriculum, and thousands of new musical instruments. Outside contributors include the Walker Family Foundation and Bohemian Foundation. The program is already live in more than 70 classrooms.
