Music For Everyone

01/15/2025

The “Sound Factory” after-school program is back and better than ever! Join us Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3:45–5:30 PM at our new MFE location in the Ware Center! Open to all students in grades 3–12. Click the link in our profile to register! 🎶✨

01/06/2025

Our Founder, John Gerdy will be speaking at the Lancaster Chamber at the end of the month!! 🎯 Unlock the Secrets to Success for Community Benefit Organizations!
📅 Date: January 28, 2025 | 🕗 Time: 8:00 - 9:30 a.m.
📍 Location: Lancaster Chamber | 💰 Cost: FREE!

🔑 What You’ll Learn:

10 Key Principles for building a strong, effective CBO!
Strategies to boost your organization’s impact in the community.
Actionable tips for organizational growth and success.
🎤 Meet the Speaker: Dr. John R. Gerdy

Founder of Music For Everyone – Over $6.5 million invested in local arts!
Former NCAA & SEC executive, community leader, and author.
Lifelong musician with a passion for community-building through music.

12/31/2024

As 2024 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to thank YOU for being a part of the Music for Everyone community. It's been an incredible year filled with growth, creativity, and, of course, music. Your support has helped us bring the joy and power of music to schools, communities, and individuals who need it most.

To celebrate all we've achieved together, we've put together a special Year-End Highlights Video. This video showcases the impact your support has made since the beginning of MFE in 2006.

12/18/2024

🎄 Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas! 🎁

Still searching for the perfect gift? Stop by the brand new MFE office at the Ware Center, 42 N Prince Street, and check out our awesome selection of merch! Our office will be open 9AM-5PM Monday-Friday this week. Our office will be closed from Tuesday through Friday the week of Christmas but you can still shop on our website; www.musicforeveryone.org/shop

🎉 We’ve got something for everyone:

MFE Stickers – FREE
MFE T-Shirts – $20
MFE Tote Bags – $10
MFE Hats – $20
Songs for Justice Vinyl – $25
Alphabone Orchestra Children’s Book – $20
Ball or Bands Book – $20
Lights on Lancaster Book – $20
Jimi Hendrix/Elvis Presley Posters – $5 or all 4 for $15
🎅🏼 Hurry in—these make the perfect last-minute gifts, and we’re here to help you wrap them up! 🎁✨

12/17/2024

🎶 Big thanks to Brian Doherty and Cory Paternoster of The Upside in Lancaster for their incredible generosity! They’ve donated:
🎸 An electric bass guitar & amplifier
🎸 An electric guitar & amplifier
🥁 A full drum kit
🎸 An acoustic guitar

All to support Music For Everyone's mission of making music accessible to all in our community! 🎵

Plus, MFE had the chance to tour The Upside's renovated performance venue and educational recording studio.👏 Amazing work, Brian and Cory—your efforts inspire!

Let’s hear it for The Upside and their commitment to music education and creativity! 🙌

12/04/2024

Facebook Post:
🎶❄️ Winter Concert Alert! ❄️🎶
Join us for Music For Everyone's Winter Concert featuring the Sound Factory strings & band, along with amazing adult and kids' choruses!

📅 Date: December 8
⏰ Time: 12:30 PM
📍 Location: Masonic Center, 213 W. Chestnut St., Lancaster
🎟️ Admission: FREE!

Bring your family and friends to enjoy this wonderful musical celebration! Let's keep the music alive in our community! 🎵

12/03/2024

Congrats to the Donegal High School Marching Band!

The Donegal High School Marching Band won first place in their division at the Cavalcade of Bands in 2023 – its first in Donegal High School Marching Band history.

11/28/2024

We are thankful for all of you who help make Music For Everyone!

11/28/2024

This is the latest addition to the Music For Everyone Music Mural Project. "Music Heals," created by the Fonk Shak Arts Collaborative, is on the Prince Street parking garage at the corner of Prince and Orange streets.

11/27/2024

An essay by our founder was recently published on the website of The Presser Foundation:

"Music as the Glue that Holds Communities and Society Together"

An ongoing debate within the educational community relates to how to classify music programs within the academic curriculum. Specifically, whether music and the arts should be considered an extracurricular or core activity.

While some schools incorporate music as part of the general, core academic budget, most junior and high schools consider music an extracurricular activity. This is due to the notion that music is a nice “add on” offering, but not necessarily critical from an academic standpoint. If this were not the case, why is it that when budget crises hit, decisions regarding which programs to downsize or eliminate always seem to focus on athletics, music, and arts programs?

However, when you consider the relative educational value and effectiveness of arts education, it’s clear that if utilized strategically, music can be the “glue” that holds the entire curriculum together. Music is math. Music is reading. Music is language. Music is science. Music is logic. And most importantly, music fosters creativity. In short, music’s value rests in its universality–its potential to link all the other core educational activities into a comprehensive educational experience. And as such, it should be the foundation of a well-rounded curriculum.

Music’s universality also places it in a unique position as a resource for community and societal impact and influence beyond the school walls. Similarly to how music can be the glue of an educational curriculum, if utilized effectively, it can also be the glue that holds our communities and society together.

Consider the various positive community building outcomes that the arts can produce. Obviously, community investment in music yields significant educational outcomes. Stated differently, every issue we face as a society, whether relating to health care, the environment, or global politics, in this increasingly fast-paced and interconnected world, is becoming more complex. And the only way we will be able to solve these increasingly complex challenges is to develop in our populace a corresponding increase in creativity; the ability to think outside the box. And the most powerful weapon in our educational and societal arsenal to teach and foster creativity is music and the arts.

But it goes beyond that. Every societal and cultural advancement throughout the history of mankind has been driven by an individual’s or group’s spark of creativity. From the “invention” of the wheel to discoveries in science, medicine, aviation, to name only a few, all started with a spark of creativity.

Creativity is literally the fuel that drives societal innovation and progress.

But that is simply the start. Music and the arts can also be an economic driver for communities. It’s no surprise that many communities have invested in the arts as a key resource to create economic vitality, many to great success.

Further, there is an increasing amount of research, writing, experimentation and application of the arts as an individual therapeutic and public health tool. Music’s power and potential to uplift and inspire as well as to calm and soothe has existed for as long as it has been played. And scientists, researchers and medical practitioners are discovering and developing additional ways to utilize music for healing virtually every day, from managing pain, addiction and PTSD, to treating dementia, depression, and anxiety to improving motor coordination in people suffering from cerebral palsy.

Music has also been a powerful platform to frame, highlight and spur change regarding issues relating to social justice and human rights. While we all have a responsibility to “bear witness” to the events in the world around us, for musicians and artists, that responsibility is far more fundamental. It is the essence of what they do. As legendary musician and activist Nina Simone said, “You can’t help it. An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.”

Finally, the act of engaging in listening, singing, or playing an instrument to learn, grow, or simply enjoy, whether alone or in a group, results in a more engaged and active populace.

So rather than thinking of music and the arts as an extra, a frill, or something nice to have, perhaps we should be thinking of the arts as the glue that holds our society and communities together because:

A more educated and creative populace equals a stronger community.

A more vibrant economy equals a stronger community.

A healthier populace equals a stronger community.

A more just society equals a stronger community.

A more engaged populace equals a stronger community.

Taken collectively, community investment in the arts is about leveraging their “connectivity” and universality to build community. In today’s increasingly fast-paced, interconnected, yet increasingly polarized society, investment in school and community music programming is anything but an “extra” or a “frill”.

In these times, it is essential.

***

By Dr. John R. Gerdy, founder of Music For Everyone and author of “Lights on Lancaster: How One American City Harnesses the Power of the Arts to Transform Communities:”

Music For Everyone’s mission is to cultivate the power of music to transform lives and communities in Lancaster County, PA. Since 2006, MFE has invested more than $6.1 million in school and community music programs.

11/22/2024

GIVE to MFE anytime: https://musicforeveryone.org/donate/

GIVE to MFE through ExtraGive on Friday: https://www.extragive.org/organizations/music-for-everyone

11/22/2024

🎶✨ Get ready to be enchanted! ✨🎶

Christmas Crooners, a nostalgic holiday r***e, will transport you back to the golden age of holiday classics! Enjoy timeless carols with a modern twist, all wrapped up in a performance that promises cherished holiday memories.

📅 Date: Sunday, November 24
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM
📍 Venue: Holy Trinity Lutheran, Lancaster County

This is a pay-what-you-will event, so bring your friends and family to share in the magic of the season!

For more details, visit ServantStage.org or call 📞 717-455-0255.

11/20/2024

🎶 The Sound Factory LIVE at EXTRA GIVE! 🎶
📅 Date: this Friday, Nov. 22
🕠 Time: Arrive at 5:30 PM. Performance 6-7 PM
📍 Location: 42 North Prince Street, Lancaster, PA 17603
💵 Admission: FREE

Join us for an uplifting live performance supporting Music For Everyone (MFE)! 🎷🎻 Come and celebrate the joy of music while contributing to a great cause.
✨ Let’s make a difference together! ✨

11/20/2024

🎶 Join us for a once-in-a-lifetime night as supergroup Close Enemies takes the stage in Lititz, PA—backstage at the world’s music hub! “Evening with The Producers - Close Enemies.” This exclusive event promises an unforgettable performance, with proceeds going to Music For Everyone , a cause dedicated to enriching our community through music. Powered by The Mediatwist Group, this is your chance to experience legendary music while making a meaningful impact. Don’t miss it! 🎶 “🎟️ Tickets dropping! Grab your spot for an unforgettable night. Get excited—this is one you won’t want to miss!
TICKETMASTER LINK: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0200616EFD6660C0?did=presale

🔥 ’tMissOut”
Special guest performances TBA
Powered by The Mediatwist Group.
Proceeds of each ticket go to MFE (Music For Everyone).

11/13/2024

🎶 Dream of Rocking a Real Stage? Health Rocks 2024 is for You! 🎶

Join us for an unforgettable experience at Health Rocks 2024, an amateur rock concert exclusively for those 50+. Whether you’re a solo artist or part of a band, this is your chance to perform in front of a live audience on March 29, 2025, at Mickey's Black Box!

💵 Entrance Fee: $25 (includes a tee shirt!)
🎸 Skill Level: Advanced beginner to intermediate
👥 Bands Formed on Site: We’ll pair you with other musicians if needed

Register by January 15, 2024 – Spots are limited to 4-6 bands! Professional mentors are welcome to guide participants. For more information, visit musicforeveryone.org or call 717.871.7804.

Let’s make this a night to remember!

11/12/2024

Get your tickets to a first-time MFE fundraiser: https://app.theauxilia.com/Event/jinglebelljunction

11/11/2024