EAST LANSING, Mich. — From the beat of the drums to fingers on the keys, School of Rock East Lansing is helping people of all ages fall in love with music.
"We've got kids starting as young as 2 or 3 all the way up to retirees," said music director Kaitlyn Riel.
You might assume that this music school is named after the movie, but it's actually been around for a while.
"The first official School of Rock ever was started in 1998," Riel said.
Now, they have over 300 schools across the world, including the one in East Lansing.
"Everybody here that takes music lessons is also in a band, so the movie did us a lot of good," Riel said.
The school's house band is made up of students from 16 to 12 years old, and they'll be making some big moves this summer.
"So not only have we been lucky enough to have been the pick of the draw for Summerfest, which is the largest music festival in the country that takes place in Milwaukee over a three-week period, but these guys are performing at Summerfest for three day," Riel said.
They will also be a headliner school, which means they are in the top 10% of all School of Rock schools in the country.
"We were chosen to perform at Bonnaroo, which is the music festival in Tennessee," Riel said.
For students like Dash Hughes and Sophia Magyar, this opportunity is a big deal.
"I'm excited to play with all these big bands and these big festivals with like tons and tons of people," Dash said. "I'm also excited to see other School of Rocks there from around the country," Dash said.
Sophia says it's even better because she gets to experience it and rock on with her instructor and fellow band members.
"We're gonna be opening for Paramore, Foo Fighters, Pixies it's crazy. It's gonna be really fun," Sophia said.
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