Summerfest Business Alliance Member Spotlight
1.) Tell Us Your Story!
Originally launched as a single location in Philadelphia in the late ‘90s, School of Rock has grown into a trademarked brand and global phenomenon, now operating over 350 music program schools in 15 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Ireland, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Taiwan. School of Rock provides students of all ages an exciting and engaging music lesson experience, which includes bass lessons, guitar lessons, singing lessons, drum lessons and piano lessons. Drawing from all styles of rock and roll, School of Rock students learn theory and techniques via songs from legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Lenny Kravitz and Led Zeppelin. Thanks to our performance-based approach, students around the world have gained superior musical proficiency, with some moving on to record deals and larger platforms such as American Idol, The Voice and Broadway.
2.) What does the future hold for your organization? - What are your plans for the future and top priorities? What does future success look like for your organization? How do you continue to evolve and what is needed to ensure future success?
School of Rock continues to expand our unique, performance-based music education and patented curriculum to new locations all over the world. We are committed to building a growing, passionate community that is dedicated to enriching lives through performance-based music education. As CEO Rob Price states, “This is an incredibly exciting time to be a part of School of Rock as we continue to build on this momentum and expand across the globe to fulfill our mission to enrich lives through music.”
3.) Adapting to change. - What are some ways in which your business has had to adapt and pivot, and how has that led to success?
School of Rock kept the music going in 2020. In less than one week, School of Rock completely pivoted its business model to offer virtual music lessons and deliver student exclusive access to some of the world's most famous musicians, new curriculum updates, virtual concerts and more.
When the pandemic began, we met as a leadership team and war-gamed the ways COVID could impact our business, our community, and our mission. We brainstormed all the possible implications, different levels of severity, and discussed innovative solutions to keep our franchisees, staff, students and overall community safe and engaged. Almost overnight we restructured our entire business model. We built out operational, educational, marketing, and IT support documents and step-by-step guides on navigating decisions around shutting down locations for an unknown amount of time, setting up and instructing music lessons over the internet, keeping school community members safe, and continuing to provide music education.
In addition to adjusting our business model, we created and released multiple new programs to increase collaboration when everyone was forced to be apart. We hosted several weeks of “Artist Sessions” with some top names in the industry, launched a “Master Class” series for additional learning opportunities, and created a process to live stream end of season performances. When we were able to return to the schools in-person, it was done in a methodical and mindful way. There were guidelines that needed to be met and steps to take to ensure the safe reopening of our schools.