Roots of Music
The Roots of Music: Creating the Next Generation of New Orleans Musicians
The Roots of Music program provides music history and theory as well as instrumental instruction and ensemble performance preparation. Serving kids ages 9-14 from low-income households, and provide our students with hot meals and round-trip transportation to reduce common barriers to participation.
Five days a week, 12 months a year, the program:
Delivers over 2,500 hours of music education and other academic tutoring
Delivers over 30,400 Nutritious hot meals
Provides 1,400 Bus journeys
Supplies over 150 instruments for student use
The Roots of Music was created in 2007, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, by Derrick Tabb
Upcoming Shows
The Roots of Music students kicked off Black Music Month with their concert and graduation in May of 2024, and excited to show off their skills in this next installment of their monthly concert series.
The Marching Crusaders will perform, as well as our Roots Studio Academy students. We will have various guest performers to help us celebrate this month of Black music including Veronica Downs-Dorsey, Yolanda Robinson and Jolynda "Kiki" Chapman (Solid Harmony: The Legacy of Topsy Chapman), and Tonya Boyd-Cannon.
