Save The Music and SongFarm.org hosted their second annual “Hometown To Hometown” event on Tuesday, May 11th. Eight-time GRAMMY® nominee, songwriter and musician, Brandy Clark along with award winning and GRAMMY® nominated Nashville-based songwriter, producer & publisher Jimmy Robbins were virtually honored as 2021 Champions of The Year for their dedication to music education.
Hosted by Leslie Fram, Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT, the evening featured exciting performances by both Brandy and Jimmy, Maddie & Tae, Lori McKenna, Jon Nite, Hailey Whitters, and more. Special guest appearances included the 2020 honorees, Ross Copperman and Nicolle Galyon, who shared the student work of last year’s beneficiaries, John Overton High School in Nashville, TN, William Fleming High School in Roanoke, VA, and Sterling High School in Sterling, KS. They remixed a song co-written by the duo using the tools and equipment from the Music Tech Grant they received and talked about its impact.
Mark Brown and Jessie Jo Dillon then presented Brandy and Jimmy with their awards. During their speeches, they shared how music education changed their lives and how they’re honored to be donating grants to schools in their hometowns of Morton, WA, Raleigh, NC, as well as in Nashville, TV. Event sponsors include CMT, Gibson Gives, Victrola, and Warner Music Group.
The Save The Music Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps students, schools, and communities reach their full potential through the power of making music. Founded in 1997, Save The Music partners with school districts and raises funds to restore music programs in public schools. Since inception, the organization has donated over $60 million worth of new musical instruments, equipment, and technology to 2,201 schools in 277 school districts around the country–impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of students. Learn more about Save The Music and its efforts at www.savethemusic.org.
SongFarm.org is a coalition of musicians, educators, and businesses who work collaboratively to enable music creation programs in secondary schools. These studios give students access to professional music equipment at their own schools, in the context of their own classes. They also provide music educators with the equipment and technology that are requisite to teaching students modern skill sets for music and film industries. SongFarm is committed to providing ongoing curricula, mentorship, and an alumni network that connects all SongFarm participants in the learning process. Learn more about us at www.songfarm.org.
For over 127 years, Gibson has been shaping sound across generations and genres through their guitars. Gibson, and its charitable arm Gibson Gives believe in the power of music, and that getting instruments into the hands of those with a desire to make music is a truly life-changing event. Gibson Gives–a 501(c)(3) committed to introduce, inspire, and amplify the power of music through guitars–believes that now more than ever we must band together to support programs for music students. Gibson Gives is committed to making the world a better place through music by creating, developing, supporting programs, and working with other non-profit organizations, in their efforts to advance youth-focused and healing music initiatives. 100% of all donations to and from Gibson Gives go towards giving the gift of music. Since inception, Gibson Gives has provided thousands of guitars and related value-in-kind of more than $30 million. In mid-2019, Gibson Gives committed to donating 1,000 guitars over the next 1000 days and blew past that milestone, by donating over 2500 guitars in less than one year’s time. Gibson Gives believes investing in music education will yield better people, better leaders, and a better world. Gibson Gives is changing lives…one guitar at a time. For more information, visit: www.gibsongives.org.