Adopt The Arts: Live Benefit Concert For LAUSD Elementary Schools Confirmed For Monday, Jan. 12 @ The Roxy
Music Luminaries Will Gather To Perform With and Honor Billy Gibbons & Butch Trucks at Annual Event
Red Carpet 6:00-7:00pm ~ Concert Begins at 7:00pm
ADOPT THE ARTS will launch a live benefit concert and event for LAUSD elementary schools on Monday, 1/12 at The Roxy (9009 W. Sunset Blvd.) in West Hollywood: music luminaries will gather to perform with and honor BILLY GIBBONS (ZZ Top) and BUTCH TRUCKS (Allman Brothers Band) for their contributions to American art and culture. Artists confirmed to perform so far include Billy Gibbons, Butch Trucks, Slash, Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), Steve Lukather (Toto), Edgar Winter, Jimmy Vivino (Conan O’Brien) vocalist Franky Perez, ADOPT THE ARTS founder Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver) and many more special guests to be announced soon. The Disreputable Few, a group of surprise killer musicians, will serve as the backing band for the night. The proceeds will go to the ADOPT THE ARTS music programs in LAUSD elementary schools (see VIP ticket/donation information later in the article). Tickets are on sale now here.
ADOPT THE ARTS ~ a Los Angeles-based charity co-founded by Sorum and activist Abby Berman ~ works to preserve arts programs in U.S. public schools. To raise awareness, ADOPT THE ARTS honors individuals who’ve had a long-lasting impact on music culture and who inspire young musicians to follow in their footsteps.
Actress JANE LYNCH was the first celebrity to sign onto ADOPT THE ARTS and is on the Board of Directors, and the advisory board includes SLASH, JOHN STAMOS, BILLY BOB THORTON, STEVE STEVENS, JULIETTE LEWIS, DANNY MASTERSON, SHEPARD FAIREY, ADRIAN YOUNG and GINA GERSHON.
Matt and Jane Lynch
According to Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), 50% of elementary school children in the district are not receiving arts education of any kind.
Abby and Matt
As in many school districts around the country, LAUSD has been slowly eroding its commitment to arts education, reducing the budget incrementally. The LAUSD district also estimates that 80% of its student body is living at or below the poverty line, which means the vast majority of these elementary school children will not have access to the arts outside of school.
“Adopt the Arts was born out of the frustration for my own children losing education in the arts,” explains ADOPT THE ARTS Co-Founder Abby Berman.
“When the system is failing, we have to take action. With influential people like my Co-Founder Matt Sorum adopting schools, we can preserve this valuable component to childhood development, which is also known to boost test scores. Because Federal and State funding is falling short, the responsibility is upon us as concerned parents and citizens to ensure we’re raising a new generation of healthy and well-rounded individuals.”
Matt Sorum and Miss Abby, music teacher extraordinaire & Music Education Director for Adopt the Arts, giving kids an opportunity to record in the studio ~ what an awesome experience for everyone involved!
ADOPT THE ARTS Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder Matt Sorum adds, “We’re starting in our own backyard here in Los Angeles, and we’ll continue to adopt schools across the nation. We believe that art is a universal and necessary language that unites us all, regardless of our backgrounds.”
******
Ticket prices for the ADOPT THE ARTS event are below, and all donations are tax deductible:
1) General: $75
2) VIP: $125 (includes seating in VIP section w/hors d’oeuvres)
3) VVIP: $250 (includes V-VIP section w/hors d’oeuvres and artist Meet and Greet at soundcheck)
Please click here to purchase the tickets or ticket packages of your choice.
About Adopt the Arts
Founded in 2010, Adopt the Arts Foundation brings together well-known artists, public figures, and the general public to save the arts in America’s public schools. Co-founders Abby Berman and Matt Sorum believe that it is morally and ethically incumbent upon the public-at-large to foster the creativity, dreams, hopes, and imaginations of our children. Adopt the Arts is dedicated to improving the academic performance of every child through the gift of making art and music available to public school students. In 2011, Adopt the Arts chose Rosewood Avenue Elementary (West Hollywood, CA) as its pilot school, working directly with the principal and the booster club to ensure that the students receive exposure to all the arts disciplines, including music, dance, theater, and visual arts. Adopt the Arts is paying the salary of the music teacher and has outfitted a music room with donated keyboards, guitars, and drums. With the help of the arts education branch of LAUSD, Adopt the Arts is identifying the most underserved schools in the district as it prepares for its next series of adoptions. In September 2012, Adopt the Arts donated 1,000 musical instruments (i.e. drum kits, keyboards, guitars, bass guitars) to LAUSD elementary schools. Each school site is available to be “adopted” by anyone that wants to help ~ whether a business, a working artist, celebrity or public figure ~ to underscore the importance of community involvement. As of December 2014, Adopt the Arts has now adopted Westminster Elementary School in Venice, CA and their music program will begin at the school in January 2015. www.adoptthearts.org, www.facebook.com/adopt.the.arts
About Matt Sorum
Matt Sorum is an American drummer and percussionist. He is best known as both a former member of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, with whom he recorded three studio albums, and as a member of the supergroup Velvet Revolver.
Matt and Slash while performing at last year’s ATA fundraiser
Sorum is currently a member of the touring project Kings of Chaos, and is a former member of both The Cult and Y Kant Tori Read. Sorum was also a member of Guns N’ Roses’ side-projects, Slash’s Snakepit and Neurotic Outsiders, and released a solo album, Hollywood Zen, in 2004. In 2012, Sorum was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N’ Roses.
About Billy Gibbons
Billy (L) and Gilly Gibbons hanging with Matt
Billy Gibbons is an American musician, producer and actor, best known as the guitarist of the American rock band ZZ Top. Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969 and released ZZ Top’s First Album in 1971. The albums that followed, Rio Grande Mud (1972) and Tres Hombres (1973), along with extensive touring, solidified the group’s reputation as a hard-rocking power trio (with quite a sense of humor, too). In the 1980s, ZZ Top released their three biggest-selling albums: Eliminator (1983), Afterburner (1985) and Recycler (1990). A wave of music videos for the hit singles “Legs“, “Gimme All Your Lovin’“, and “Sharp Dressed Man,” among others, became mainstays on MTV. Gibbons was ranked at number 32 on the 2011 Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004
About Butch Trucks
Butch holdin’ it down…
Butch Trucks is an American drummer who is one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band. Trucks helped form the band in 1969, along with Duane Allman (guitar), Gregg Allman (vocals and organ), Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), and fellow drummer Jai Johanny Johanson. Trucks continues to record and perform with the Allman Brothers Band today. As the principal architects of Southern rock, the Allman Brothers Band forged a new musical sound built on elements of blues, jazz, soul, R&B and rock and roll and help advance rock as a medium for improvisation. Their kind of jamming required a level of technical virtuosity and musical literacy that was relatively new to rock & roll, The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Very special thanks to MSO PR!