Music Will’s Star-Studded, 15th Annual Benefit Continues Groundbreaking Work in Multi-Genre Music Education Programs at Public Schools Nationwide
Event Honored Tony Award-Winning Singer/Actress Idina Menzel, Iconic Guitarist/Songwriter/Activist And Recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Tom Morello, Music Legend/12-Time Grammy Winner Babyface, and Pioneering Music Educator Dave Wish
May 2nd Benefit—at The Novo in Los Angeles---Featured Performances by Babyface, Idina Menzel, Tom Morello, Allison Russell, Gary Gulman, and Music Will Student Performers, with Musical Direction by Michael Bearden (Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston)
Music Will Gala + Red Carpet Photos Available Here:
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May 3, 2023---Music Will (formerly Little Kids Rock), the largest non-profit music education program for schools across the U.S., celebrated its transformative mission with a star-studded, 15th annual benefit last night at The Novo in Los Angeles. This year’s event honored Tony Award-winning singer/actress Idina Menzel, influential guitarist/singer/activist Tom Morello, 12-time Grammy Award-winning producer/recording artist Babyface and pioneering music educator Dave Wish.
In addition to stellar performances from Babyface, Idina Menzel, and Tom Morello, the stage welcomed singer/songwriter Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago, Our Native Daughters), comedian Gary Gulman, DJ Skee, and Music Will school program participants from Miramonte Elementary School, Verdugo Hills High School, and the Harman-sponsored alumni band, Los Riot---all overseen by musical director Michael Bearden (Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston).
Each of this year’s musician honorees will be dedicated to expanding Music Will’s programs in local schools, with Babyface focused on his hometown of Indianapolis, Tom Morello on a range of schools between Chicago and New York, and Idina Menzel concentrating on LA and New York. The event’s awards acknowledged each honoree’s cultural achievements:
- Grammy award -winning producer, songwriter, and singer Babyface received The Master Musician Award, recognizing his exceptional talent, versatility, dedication to creating music that inspires and moves people, and mastery of his craft. Throughout his career, Babyface has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to excellence, producing, writing, and performing music that is both technically precise and emotionally resonant. Hit producer Jimmy Jam presented the award to Babyface.
- Tom Morello, Grammy-winning guitarist, singer, and activist received The Humanitarian Award for his tireless work for social justice. Morello has used his rock ‘n’ roll platforms (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and The Nightwatchman) to speak out for society’s marginalized and for workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Public Enemy founder/ and front man Chuck D presented Morello with the honor.
- Tony Award-winning singer, actress, and philanthropist Idina Menzel was given The Dream Builder Award for her vast contributions to stage and screen and her co-founding of A BroaderWay Foundation, empowering young girls from underserved communities to nurture their creativity and self-expression through arts-centered programs. Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) presented the award.
- The recipient of Music Will’s first Music Educator Lifetime Achievement Award is lifetime educator and Music Will founder, Dave Wish. The award celebrates those who have dedicated themselves to shaping the next generation of musicians, fostering a love of music and inspiring students to achieve their full potential. Dave Wish has made immeasurable contributions to the field and influenced many with his passion, extraordinary vision, and commitment.
Presented by the Hot Topic Foundation, the Music Will benefit was produced by MBM Entertainment. It featured a pre-show silent online auction and remarks from comedian Gary Gulman, and Janice Polizzotto, Music Will Interim CEO.
Music Will Interim CEO Janice Polizzotto said, “Last night’s exciting event underscored the music community’s deep support and enthusiasm for Music Will, which has been essential to our vision for systemic change to music education---and children’s lives. We’re grateful to everyone who participated in this joyful evening.”
The Music Will annual benefit committee includes Richard Foos (Founder, Rhino Records and Shout! Factory), Craig Kallman (CEO, Atlantic Records), Gregory Hall (Managing Director & Head of U.S. Global Wealth Management, Pimco) and Ken Umezaki (CEO, Verifi Media).
The benefit sought to provide essential funding for Music Will’s ongoing mission to provide teacher training, a diverse curriculum, and free musical instruments to students---connecting them with the music that ignites their interest. Over one million young people across the U.S. have been impacted by the organization’s programs to date.
Music Will’s annual benefit events have continually attracted an exciting range of top artists. Past honorees have included Bonnie Raitt, Smokey Robinson, Elvis Costello, Warren Haynes, Usher, Steven Van Zandt, Mavis Staples, Joan Jett, Trombone Shorty, Wiz Khalifa, and Clarence Clemmons, among others. Renowned performers and presenters have included Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Alice Cooper, Darlene Love, Carlos Santana, Yo-Yo Ma, Brian Wilson, Jack Black, Graham Nash, Steve Miller, Todd Rundgren, Alice Merton, Darryl McDaniels (Run-D.M.C.), Harry Connick, Jr., and more. Special guest appearances have featured comedians David Letterman and Tracy Morgan.
Of their past galas, Rolling Stone has described Music Will benefits as “raucous and celebratory,” and Billboard noted past speakers are “intent on asserting the value of music not only as art, but as a key to communication, a crucial part of human nature, a cornerstone of democracy.”
Since Music Will was founded in 2002, its mission has remained steadfast while the population it serves has grown exponentially. It is now the largest non-profit music program in U.S. public schools. With a vision that music education should be as diverse as the people it serves, the organization rebranded in 2022 with its new name, reflecting service to kids of all ages, across all genres of music.
About Music Will
Music Will runs the largest nonprofit music program in the U.S. public school system. Its teachers currently serve over 500,000 students in more than 600 cities and towns across the country. They 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, their 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. Additionally, more than 70 colleges and universities now use their approach to music education majors. Several state departments of education have partnered with Music Will to grow music education in the schools they serve. Its mission of transforming lives by transforming music education has grown into a movement.
Music Will began as an informal effort by former Palo Alto school teacher, Dave Wish, who was frustrated by the lack of music programming in his school. Borrowing from friends and scouring area flea markets for instruments, he began offering free guitar classes after school using the popular music the students wanted to play. Many school teachers in Dave’s area were inspired by his program’s incredible impact, so he began offering training to help them start their own music classes. He coined the term "modern band" to describe his unique curriculum, later publishing Modern Band Method textbooks with Hal Leonard. Dave left the classroom in 2002 to found “Little Kids Rock,” the nonprofit that became Music Will in 2022. In 2023, Dave took on the new role of Chief Visionary Officer, focusing on strategy and organizational evangelism.
About Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel is a Tony-Award winning, powerhouse multi-hyphenate: a singer, an actress in film and TV, a songwriter, a Broadway star, and a philanthropist. She rose to fame for her role as Maureen in the popular Broadway musical Rent, and her career took off when she won a Tony Award for her role as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the smash musical Wicked. Her voice can be heard as Elsa in Disney’s Oscar® winning Frozen, the second highest grossing animated films of all time, with more than $1.2 billion in worldwide box office revenue. The film’s song “Let It Go,” voiced by Menzel, became an instant international phenomenon, winning the Oscar® for Best Original Song – where Menzel performed it at the ceremony – and the Grammy® Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. The track reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Menzel the first artist with both a Billboard Top 10 hit and a Tony Award for acting.
A skillful songwriter, Menzel’s prolific recording career includes multiple cast albums and the solo albums: Still I Can’t Be Still, Here, I Stand, Idina, and her latest album, Christmas: A Season of Love, which was released October 2019 via Schoolboy Records/Decca Records, US. Produced by veteran A&R legend Ron Fair (Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, The Pussycat Dolls, Keyshia Cole, Vanessa Carlton, Fantasia), the album features Ariana Grande, Billy Porter, Josh Gad, and Idina’s husband, Aaron Lohr. Christmas: A Season of Love is the second holiday album from Menzel, following her October 2014 release of Holiday Wishes, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums chart and gave Menzel a Top 10 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. Her third studio LP of original songs, idina, landed in the Top 30 on Billboard’s Top 200 charts upon its release in 2016. Menzel received the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award at Billboard’s annual Women in Music event in 2014 and performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLIX. Philanthropy is also important to Menzel, who co-founded the A BroaderWay Foundation in 2010. The organization is dedicated to offering girls from underserved communities an outlet for self-expression and creativity through arts-centered programs. The emphasis is on building self-esteem, developing leadership qualities, and striving for personal and social achievement. In 2014, Menzel was recognized as one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees for her work with the organization.
About Tom Morello
Tom Morello is living proof of the transformative power of rock’n’roll. Known for his innovative guitar solos and thunderous chords, Morello is a groundbreaking artist whether in his solo career or as an original member of the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, two acts responsible for multiple Grammy Awards and a combined 30 million albums sold worldwide. His trademark style -- elastic slapping, atmospheric distortion, and effects that resembled turntable scratching -- was a crucial component of Rage Against the Machine's rap-metal sonic attack in the late '90s, helping launch Morello and the band to Grammy-winning, multi-platinum success and leading to his recognition by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the “100 Greatest Guitar Players of All-Time” (#26). Outside of that influential outfit, Morello's signature guitar could be heard in supergroups Prophets of Rage, and Street Sweeper Social Club. Additionally, Morello is a vocal political activist and solo artist who first performed as the Nightwatchman before using his given name for projects like 2021's companion albums The Atlas Underground Fire and The Atlas Underground Flood.
“I’ve been devoted both musically and as an activist to fighting injustice at every turn,” says Morello. “Amid this heightened sense of impending doom, it’s now time to rally the troops in a last-ditch effort to save the planet, and our artistic souls. By challenging the boundaries of what music is and has sounded like before, you can open people’s eyes to changing the status quo in society.”
About Babyface
Babyface is a 12-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist, songwriter, producer, and one of the most celebrated creative forces in music history. He is the only producer to win the ‘Producer of the Year’ category four times, three times in consecutive years---a record he holds to this day. Babyface is also co-founder of the legendary record label LaFace, which launched the careers of artists like Usher, Toni Braxton, TLC, Outkast, and Pink. From humble beginnings in Indianapolis, Babyface developed his love for music early on when he began songwriting at the age of 12. Upon graduating high school, he was signed to his first record deal after joining the band Manchild. In the 1980s, he broke into the music world as guitarist and songwriter for R&B band The Deele, where he met future LaFace co-founder LA Reid. Over the years Babyface has contributed to over 800 million records sold and over a billion records streamed. He has produced and written 125 Top 10 Hits, 44 #1 R&B hits, and 16 #1 pop hits. In addition to winning a total of 12 Grammys, he has been nominated 80 times. Throughout his career, Babyface has won the BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year trophy seven times, received a total of 51 BMI Awards, as well as four American Music Awards, five Soul Train Awards, and five NAACP Image awards. He also produced and co-wrote the Oscar-winning song “When You Believe,” sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Earlier this year Babyface released the Extended version of his Capitol Records debut album Girls Night Out which features Ella Mai, Queen Naija, Ari Lennox, Kehlani, Doechii and many others. The album was produced by Babyface and co-produced by Rika Tischendorf.
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Tik Tok/YouTube: @Babyface
For more information please contact Rebecca Shapiro or Grace Fleisher at Shore Fire Media at rshapiro@shorefire.com or gfleisher@shorefire.com.