Music Rising Donation

Roots of Music has received a donation of musical instruments worth over of $20,000! The gift came from Music Rising and was administered by the Gibson Foundation and the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation.

As you can see, the students at RoM are already putting this generous gift to use!

The students had a surprise waiting for them when they got off the bus in their school uniforms... shiny new trumpets.


The drummers love their new Ludwig snare and tenor drums. Playing cadences on these is way more fun than banging on banquet tables.


The horn players have new trumpets, mellophones, and sousaphones from Jupiter. Here instructor Edward Lee goes over a complicated tuba part.

Thanks again to the kind folks at Music Rising, the Gibson Foundation, and the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation for helping keep the drums beating and horns blowing in New Orleans.

We also received enormous support this year from the Jubilation Foundation, Tipitina’s Foundation, Sweet Home New Orleans, D'Addario Foundation, B'Nai Israel Baton Rouge, Ludwig, Hudson Music, and many more.

For the moment, RoM is humming along with instruments, but we are in need of donations to ensure that students can attend the classes for no charge. Buses and teacher salaries make up the vast majority of our budget. Help us out by donating here. (Please indicate Roots of Music in the PayPal form).