By: Jaida Dent
Deemed “The Most Revolutionary Music Education School In The World,” the internationally-acclaimed School Of Rock’s New York program took the Governor’s Ball (Gov Ball) stage by storm. Featuring a cast of School of Rock New York students, this marks the school’s fourth appearance at Gov Ball, their first being in 2023.
Founded in 1998 in Philadelphia, the School of Rock has expanded to over 385 locations across the world. The school offers a variety of programming for students from eight to 18 years old, including “Rock 101,” “Performance,” and “Songwriting,” and music lessons focused on guitar, drums, keyboard, and singing.
“The one main thing we do that really sets us apart is our combination of private lessons, and group rehearsals, and group classes,” said Adam Sapiro, the music director for the School of Rock New York. “What you were seeing up there today really is a result of the pinnacle of our kids doing the group classes for multiple years, auditioning into the only audition-based band we have, and then putting on that level of performance because of that.”
The students who performed at Gov Ball were members of the “House Band,” which is the audition-based band, providing students access to live performances to implement their musical skills.
“The House Band music program allows each school’s most talented students the opportunity to join a band and play routinely in front of live audiences. Once a member, students will gain real music experience associated with gigging musicians and will become leaders and mentors inside the School of Rock community,” according to the House Band description on the School of Rock’s website.
The band put on an electric performance on The Grove stage at Gov Ball, performing renditions of several songs, including “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour and “Duvet” by Bôa. Multiple students performed, swapping in and out of roles from being main singers to guitarists to drummers. With a crowd of smiling friends and family, the students took full advantage of the opportunity to be rock stars on one of the biggest NYC festival platforms.
As members of the House Band, students have been able to take away foundational skills needed for incoming artists in the music industry. Izabelle Ruch, a junior at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and longtime member of the School of Rock, finds teamwork to be a key skill she’s honed with the program.
“How to work with a group, how to make each other better, strive, teach people different things, how to dynamically work together and be a team together.”
Miles Probin, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School, has found that his time with the School of Rock has shown him that there is more to music than what lies on the sheet.
“I originally came from classical piano, so one of the biggest things I learned here is how to get off the sheet music and start being able to just play on your own. You’re not just playing it note for note, you’re able to do your own thing,” said Probin.
Beyond just learning, the School of Rock represents a place of opportunity for the students who enter the program.
According to data from the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) Info Hub, in the 2024-2025 school year, 77 percent of all PreK-to-12 schools provided music instruction. However, only 31 percent of students met the minimum requirement of having two or more semesters of arts instruction in two different art forms by the end of the 8th grade. The School of Rock New York has become a place for students to explore musical abilities they may not be able to develop at school or at home.
“We hear from students all the time, some version of, ‘This is where I can do my music,’” said Sapiro. “For drummers, it might be the only place they can access an acoustic kit, a full kit, because they live in a New York City apartment and they can’t have a real kit because it would bother the neighbors.”
Sapiro continued, “It might be things as small as that, or things as big as their regular schools don’t have music programs, or don’t have music programs that have a rock option, or don’t have music programs that have access to anything other than acoustic guitars. There are different things we provide that we really are their one place to get that, and they have so much fun doing it.”
Though the School of Rock is an extracurricular activity outside of students’ original schools, it doesn’t always have to be separated. Samuel Cohen, a senior at Robert Louis Stevenson School, has found ways to implement his training from the School of Rock into his everyday life at school.
“I used to keep music and school separate, but when I started at my new school, I joined a band there. So it’s sort of incorporated into all aspects of my life right now, but it started with School of Rock.”
This program has given students much more to walk away with than music education, but a greater understanding of self and confidence, as many of them prepare to step into future careers, either in or outside of music.
“I think life is a lot of fun if you make it fun, and this program has shown us that if you put yourself out there, you’ll get really good results,” said Ruch.
“It’s the place where I found where I belong,” said Sapiro. “I was a School of Rock student as a kid growing up in Miami, and then moved around. But when I ended up in New York and started working at the New York School, I was like, ‘Oh, now I’m seeing the next generation have the same formative experience I did in a really positive way.’”
For more information about the School of Rock, check out their official website.