Los Angeles, CA –– On Monday, May 20th, Monte Pittman, lead guitarist for Madonna and current solo artist, will jam with students at Pio Pico Middle School in Los Angeles, which is participating in the free Music Will music program. Moreover, Pittman will be arriving with free instruments for the students, courtesy of Moksha Yoga’s 30-day “Sweat For Change” fundraising Crowdrise challenge, which raised nearly $115,000 for Music Will to restore and revitalize music education in under-served public schools nationwide.

Music Will, the United States’ leading nonprofit provider of music education and free instruments to public school children, is currently reaching over 110,000 children with weekly music lessons amidst budget cuts that are eliminating music education from some of the nation’s most disadvantaged public schools. Nearly 3,000 current Music Will students receive free music education in 125+ Los Angeles/Pasadena.

SMoksha Yoga LA, NYC and MNPLS combined their efforts to raise nearly $115,000 as part of a 30-day fundraising challenge on Crowdrise, to help Music Will bring free musical instruments and lessons to disadvantaged schoolchildren. Pittman, who joined Music Will’s honorary board in 2009, is going to help them deliver some of the new instruments that the funds have purchased.

“One of the greatest gifts from being a musician is the ability to help others by what you have been blessed with,” Pittman says.

Pittman’s initial claim to fame was his role as the “Guitar Teacher to the Stars,” teaching British film director, Guy Ritchie and his then girlfriend – pop music legend Madonna, with whom he eventually toured and performed with at Super Bowl XLVI. Having just completed stints as the musical director and lead guitarist for Adam Lambert’s Glam Nation Tour, followed by recording his second studio album Pain, Love and Destiny, playing guitar on Madonna’s MDNA world tour which became the top grossing tour of 2012, and most recently completing a full length album produced by legendary Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen, Pittman is taking time out to teach tomorrow’s stars the art that he has taught to today’s stars.

Pittman will engage in a Q&A session with the students to talk to them about life as a professional recording artist and being on tour with Madonna, as well as a jam with the students. Then, he and representatives from Moksha Yoga LA will unveil the brand new instruments being donated to Pio Pico Middle School.

“Music Will is so grateful to Moksha Yoga for their generous donation to our children, and to Monte Pittman for helping us inspire children and transform their lives by giving the gift of music,” says Music Will founder and executive director, David Wish, who founded Music Will in 2002. “Music changes children, and children change the world.”

WHAT: Famed Madonna guitarist/singer-songwriter Monte Pittman will join Moksha Yoga LA and Music Will to deliver instruments and jam with students from Pio Pico M.S. to celebrate Moksha Yoga’s $115,000 30-day fundraising challenge for Music Will

WHEN: Monday, May 20th (2:30 – 3:30 pm)

WHERE: Pio Pico Middle School (1512 Arlington Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 9001)

PARKING: Parking is available in an accessible underground parking garage directly off Arlington Ave.

INSIDE: The visit will take place in the “multi-purpose room.”

About Music Will:

Headquartered in Cedar Grove, NJ, Music Will 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 that focus on teaching kids to perform, improvise and compose the musical genres that they love. To date, Music Will has reached over 235,000 students. More info at current.musicwill.org

About Moksha Yoga

Moksha Yoga is more than a series of postures. It began with the vision of two individuals and has since grown into a worldwide community with classes and studios around the globe. They are a group of independent hot yoga studios committed to ethical, compassionate and environmentally conscious living, and believe that the benefits of yoga are limitless and accessible to all.
This family has evolved and flourished with the ideas, hard work and support of every Moksha Yoga studio owner, Moksha Yoga teachers and most importantly through a community of devoted students working on bettering the world on a subtle level – one sweaty yoga class at a time! To learn more about the Moksha Yoga LA, visit

About Monte Pittman

Raised in Longview, TX, Monte Pittman made the bold decision at only 24 to move to L.A. to pursue a career as a professional musician. Upon arriving in LA, he worked at a local Guitar Center. Realizing he was better at teaching than selling, he left to start providing guitar lessons. As fate would have it, his third student ended up being British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, who had just received a guitar from his girlfriend, Madonna. Monte was then introduced to her, and became her guitar teacher. A month later, Monte was invited to join Madonna on stage at the David Letterman Show. He has since supported her on five world tours, starting with 2001’s Drowned World Tour, and shares writing credits on a number of her songs.

Monte has also played guitar and bass for industrial rock band Prong, and is credited with co-writing songs on 2003’s Scorpio Rising and co-writing/co-producing 2007’s Power of the Damager. Monte has also been the lead guitarist and music director for Adam Lambert, and toured on the Glam Nation Tour in 2010. In November 2009, Monte released his debut acoustic album, The Deepest Dark, which skyrocketed to No. 1 on CDBaby.com’s Best-Selling Acoustic Albums list, and No. 9 in the Top 10 Best-Selling CDs.

Following his historic Kickstarter campaign, which raised a staggering $65,500 and made him the top funded rock artist on Kickstarter, he released 2011’s critically acclaimed Pain, Love & Destiny, which in its first week made it to No. 1 Rock Album, No. 1 Pop Album, and onto the Top 10 Albums chart. It also cracked iTunes’ Top 200 within its first week, making it the only album by an independent artist to have done so. It has been hailed by ROCK iKON as “a real treat from a highly talented and gifted guitar genius,” and a “rock album classic” by The Ripple Effect.

In 2012, Jarrell Guitars honored Pittman with his very own signature guitar series, with which he performed at the 2012 Super Bowl alongside Madonna; and at the 2012 Artists In Music Awards, where he was honored with an award for Best Solo Artist, in addition to being nominated in four other categories. He has also recently been honored with a Career Achievement Award from the Hollywood F.A.M.E. Awards, and was nominated by the Los Angeles Music Awards for Best Male Singer/Songwriter; for Best Modern Rock Album and Best Independent Album by Melodic.net; and by Guitar Planet, which has inducted his new signature Jarrell guitar into its Hall of Fame, along with being up for Guitar Planet’s Guitar of the Year Award.

He is currently gearing up to release Part 1 of his next album, M.P.3: The Power Of Three, which will be released in three parts over the next year, starting in November. The first part will be acoustic, followed by metal, and then a blues EP. The first EP was recorded in one day with famed Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Flemming Rasmussen, best known for his work with Metallica, Cat Stevens and Morbid Angel. For more information, check out: