Payam Music Announces Partnership with Music Legend Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music and Funding from Tech Executives to Expand Award-Winning Piano Schools

SEATTLE, May 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Payam Music, the innovative music education school transforming the way students learn piano, has announced a partnership with music legend Hans Zimmer as well as successfully raised funding from top tech and media executives, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO of Uber), Michelle Zatlyn (Co-founder, President & Co-Chair of Cloudflare), and Drew Houston (CEO of Dropbox). Code.org Founder Hadi Partovi joined the company as CEO. This strategic investment and new leadership will help fuel Payam Music's expansion of brick-and-mortar piano schools across the U.S., bringing its natural, intuitive approach to piano education to students nationwide.

As featured on 60 Minutes, Payam Music has developed a proprietary piano-learning methodology inspired by the psychology of language acquisition. Unlike traditional lessons that rely heavily on confusing sheet music from the beginning, Payam Music's approach teaches students to learn piano first through an intuitive alphanumeric notation, enabling students to play their favorite songs from day one. This innovative method has resulted in remarkable success: 96% of Payam Music students achieve diploma-level within just four years—far surpassing the national average, where only 2% of students reach diploma level in 12 years.

In 2025, Payam Music students achieved extraordinary success in the PTA Reflections national competition, securing four out of five top spots in Washington State and the number one spot nationally. These accomplishments for over a decade are a testament to the school's ability to inspire a love of music while achieving exceptional student outcomes.

"We're building a movement that challenges the traditional model of music education," said Payam Khastkhodaei, Founder of Payam Music. "Our methodology creates an environment where learning feels like play, and success is a natural result of students falling in love with piano. Our vision is to bring this new approach to millions of students and change the way piano is taught worldwide."

Payam Music's unique combination of personalized curriculum, inspirational teachers, and leadership opportunities for students caught the attention of Code.org Founder Hadi Partovi, whose son has been a student since 2020 and won 3rd place nationally in the PTA Reflections competition for piano composition. Partovi recognized the immense value of Payam Music's innovative methodology, which allows students to learn piano faster and with more joy compared to traditional methods that often fail to inspire or engage students.

This move aligns with Partovi's track record of massively scaling education initiatives with a focus on student creativity. At Code.org, he scaled computer science education programs to 100 million students globally. "Everybody loves music, but most people never learn to play an instrument. Payam Music enables any student to learn to play the music they love. And with the support of the investors and musicians we're announcing today, we want to give every student the opportunity to develop their creativity through music."

The investment from technology leaders underscores the importance of learning a musical instrument to balance screen time with creative time, especially in the age of AI. "Building creativity, confidence, and grit are the critical skills that every parent and future employer wants to see," explained Partovi.

Additionally, top Payam students will be mentored by Hans Zimmer and the world's leading music composers through the partnership with Bleeding Fingers, a multiple Emmy Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated composer collective co-founded by Zimmer, Russell Emanuel, and Steve Kofsky.

"Music education has long been stuck in the past, with methods that often fail to capture the imagination of young learners," said Hans Zimmer, legendary composer and Payam Music investor. "Payam Music is rewriting the playbook for how music is taught. With an intuitive methodology and the support of passionate teachers, Payam Music is enabling students to reach their full potential—and have fun composing music. I'm thrilled that my production studio Bleeding Fingers Music will be mentoring their best students to nurture the next generation of composers."

The company's new funding and partnerships will allow Payam Music to scale to become the first national piano school. "Too many kids give up on music because traditional methods don't work for them," said entrepreneur Mark Cuban. "Payam Music has cracked the code with a teaching approach that keeps kids engaged and actually learning."

In addition to expanding beyond its current locations in Washington, California, New York, and Maryland to locations across the U.S., the school will also extend its reach through live 1:1 online lessons.

Payam Music's methodology is not just about teaching piano. It's about building confidence, increasing motivation, and creating a lasting love of music. New students can sign up for lessons or request new school locations at payammusic.com.

About Payam Music
Payam Music was founded by Payam Khastkhodaei, a former pharmaceutical bioengineering graduate student who, after rediscovering his love for piano, developed a groundbreaking teaching methodology. Payam Music's mission is to deliver the highest quality piano education through a new curriculum taught by exceptional teachers in schools and online. The school's innovative methodology enables students to fall in love with piano while achieving results that far exceed traditional methods. With a growing network of schools and online lessons, Payam Music is poised to disrupt the piano education landscape. Led by CEO Hadi Partovi, Payam Khastkhodaei, and a growing group of exceptional teachers, Payam Music is backed by world class executives, investors, and musicians.

Piano school enrollment is open in Seattle, Washington (Bothell, Bellevue), Southern California (Santa Monica, Irvine), the San Francisco Bay Area (Los Altos, Piedmont), New York (Great Neck), and DC (Bethesda, MD), is coming soon to additional locations in Washington (Redmond) and California (Encino), and is quickly expanding across the US. Sign up to enroll or reserve your spot at a school opening soon at payammusic.com. Plus, listen to our students play on Instagram.

About Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which combined grossed over $30 billion at the worldwide box office. He has been honored with two Academy Awards®, three Golden Globes®, five Grammys®, an American Music Award, seven Emmy ® nominations and a Tony® nomination.

Zimmer's career highlights include Dune: Part One, Dune: Part Two, Interstellar, Top Gun: Maverick, No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma & Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years a Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored with Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk. He also scored David Attenborough's Prehistoric Planet, the final season of HBO MAX's hit series Euphoria, and Joseph Kosinski's F1, the highest-grossing sports film of all time, which earned him a Golden Globe® nomination. Upcoming, Zimmer will score the third part in Denis Villeneuve's Dune franchise, releasing December 18.

His concert film Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert was released in cinemas worldwide in 2025. It features live performances of Zimmer's most revered compositions, as well as conversations with his closest collaborators, including Billie Eilish, Sir Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Finneas, Jerry Bruckheimer, Johnny Marr, Pharrell Williams, Tanya Lapointe, Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.

Beyond his award-winning compositions, Zimmer is a remarkably successful touring artist. He recently concluded his first North American and European "Hans Zimmer Live" tours. He has also performed in the Middle East, including two consecutive nights at Dubai's renowned Coca-Cola Arena, as well as at Formula 1's Singapore Grand Prix.

About Bleeding Fingers

Bleeding Fingers Music is an Emmy Award-winning and Grammy- and BAFTA-nominated collective of exceptional, sonically diverse composers who create superlative original film, television and multimedia scores. Co-founded by Hans Zimmer, Russell Emanuel and Steven Kofsky, Bleeding Fingers is guided by the principle that collaboration is the catalyst for innovation—and extraordinary music results from empowering artists to be adventurous, experimental and creatively generous. With 25 state-of-the-art studios and its best-in-class production team, Bleeding Fingers enables the production of music at the highest standard, always challenging the status quo. For more information, please visit BleedingFingersMusic.com and follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Contact: Payam Music, Deborah Kelson, Email: [email protected], Website: www.payammusic.com, Bleeding Fingers Music, IDEmail: [email protected], Website: www.bleedingfingersmusic.com, Hans Zimmer, IDEmail: [email protected] 

SOURCE Payam Music