About Music Will
A mission that’s become a movement
Music Will runs the largest nonprofit music program in the US public school system. Our teachers currently serve over 500,000 students in more than 600 cities and towns across the country.
We believe that music education is a right, not a privilege, and it should reflect the cultures of the students it serves.
That’s why, for two decades now, our programs have taught students such popular American genres as rock, pop, R&B, Latin, rap and country—alongside styles already taught in schools, such as classical and jazz.
Today, a national network of K-12 districts has adopted the Music Will program as their own.
More than 70 colleges and universities now teach our approach to their music education majors. Several state departments of education have partnered with Music Will to grow music education in the schools they serve.
Our mission of transforming lives by transforming music education has grown into a movement.
First-grade teacher (and Music Will founder) Dave Wish, with his first music class in 1996
How It Started
In 1996, first-grade schoolteacher Dave Wish was upset that his school had no music program. So, he began offering free after-school music classes, using a teaching approach he developed himself.
His approach used instruments and music his students wanted to play. And kids began playing on the very first day! Kids flocked to the classes, began giving concerts, composing their own songs and even releasing albums.
Many schoolteachers in Dave’s area were inspired by his program’s incredible impact. So, he began offering training to help them start their own music programs. It worked! More and more schools started programs like Dave’s.
Inspired by the work of his fellow teachers, Dave left the classroom in 2002 to found “Little Kids Rock,” the nonprofit that became Music Will in 2022.
