National Nonprofit Little Kids Rock Brings Music Education to Thousands of Bay Area Schoolchildren Amidst Budget Cuts

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- This weekend, at least 25 San Francisco Bay Area teachers will receive music education training, curricula and instruments in a free, two-day workshop that will transform their schools' music program, and their students' lives. With budget cuts eliminating or reducing music programming in public schools nationwide, national nonprofit Little Kids Rock is donating more than $100,0000–worth of instruments, training and resources to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and surrounding districts in an effort to restore and revitalize music education within the public schools.

Little Kids Rock will train at least 25 Bay Area teachers this weekend at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts and donate instruments, curriculum and accompanying resources to the teachers' schools thereafter. At the workshop, teachers will play guitar, write and perform their own songs, and learn how to teach a kid-friendly, pop-oriented music program at their schools that focuses on teaching kids to perform, improvise and compose music rooted in the popular genres of the past 50 years and today on instruments like guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. Little Kids Rock instructors will also demonstrate how to teach kids to perform a popular song, which will be followed by a student performance and Q & A session.

Founded in the Bay Area just over ten years ago, Little Kids Rock has since served over 200,000 children from low-income communities in 12 states with free, instrumental music lessons, and currently offers its innovative, free program to nearly 2,300 students in 43 Bay Area schools.

Funding for this donation comes on behalf of grants from the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, as well as from funds raised at Little Kids Rock's 10^th anniversary gala, which was held at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park this past September and featured performances by Sammy Hagar, Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses), Taboo (Black Eyed Peas) and Little Kids Rock students.

"Little Kids Rock is very grateful to the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation for supporting our efforts to bolster music programs in Bay Area public schools," says David Wish, Little Kids Rock founder and executive director. "Music changes people, and people change the world. For this reason, we seek to bring music education into the lives of as many Bay Area children as we possibly can."

WHAT: Little Kids Rock will train at least 25 teachers in its innovative music program, students from the program will perform, and then teachers will receive grants of instruments and resources in the following weeks.

WHEN: Saturday, February 23^rd  (9 am – 3 pm) & Sunday, February 24^th (9 am – 3 pm)
* Students will perform on Saturday from 12:30-1:00 pm.

WHERE: Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, 555 Portola Dr., San Francisco, CA 34131

PARKING: Lot on site.

Media are invited to attend and film. Please contact [email protected]

About Little Kids Rock:
Little Kids Rock is a national nonprofit that transforms children's lives by restoring and revitalizing music education in disadvantaged public schools. The organization partners with school districts to train public school teachers in their innovative curriculum while donating all of the instruments and resources necessary to run rockin' music programs. To date they have reached over 200,000 students. More info at http://www.littlekidsrock.org

SOURCE Little Kids Rock