The School of Rock is celebrating 25 years of bringing a revolutionary spin to music education, according to an announcement from the brand.
The now-international franchise of over 500 schools had humble origins in a single location in Philadelphia in 1998. Over time, its performance-based teaching method and curriculum pairing live group shows with one-on-one instruction saw enormous success. Since 2009, the School of Rock has seen tremendous student enrollment growth from approximately 4,000 to over 62,000 enrollees.
Now that it has been acquired by Youth Enrichment Brands, a youth sports and activities company, the next 25 years of the School of Rock are aimed toward more growth and innovation.
“School of Rock has come so far in the last 25 years, that much stronger with each evolution,” said Teddi Tarnoff, regional manager of School of Rock Southern Nevada, according to a news release.
Noting that she had attended the original Philadelphia school as a child, Tarnoff stressed the School of Rock’s focus on developing alongside its growing student body.
“[The students’] achievements on and off the stage are a testament to what we stand for and work towards every day,” she said.
Together with partner Gibson Brands, the School of Rock is marking 25 years of cultivating the talents of young musicians with two special edition guitars featuring the iconic batwing symbol, custom backplates, and a truss rod cover. Only 300 of these special edition SG Standard Guitars and 100 SG Standard Bass Guitars will be available, making them a true collector’s item. They cost $1,899 a piece and are limited to one guitar per person.
Moreover, $25,000 of the proceeds generated by the guitar sales will be donated to the School of Rock’s non-profit partners, the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, Music Will, and the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville.
“A milestone like this calls for something special, and what better way to honor 25 years than with a custom School of Rock Gibson SG?” said Rob Price, the CEO of School of Rock, in the release. “These custom instruments symbolize more than two decades of passion, dedication, and collaboration by our community of owners and operators who have enriched hundreds of thousands of lives around the world through music.”
