Day-Long Benefit with Bands to Help Music Education Programs

A local business will stage a musical event on Sunday to raise money from music programs in schools throughout the Louisville area.The event called “Save the Music” was the idea of Benji Simmons who works for Mom’s Music, and the management there supported it. More than 40 bands will play on five stages from 4 p.m. until midnight Sunday at City Block in downtown Louisville.Besides working at the music store, Simmons teaches the band drum line at Bullitt Central High School, where he was in band and chorus when he went to school there. He says listening to other teachers motivated him to organize the event."I see the band directors and the choir directors and the music educators scrounging for every penny they can just to get the basics done that they need for that year," he says.The cover charge will go to help music programs at public and private schools in Jefferson County and surrounding counties. Louisville Public Media is a sponsor of “Save the Music.”Simons was inspired to lauch this effort because of his own experience in Bullitt Central High School’s music program."Music Education, when I was in school, gave me a reason to want to be at school," he says. "Yes, I enjoyed school outside of the arts but it really, for me, the music education department’s what gave my school years purpose."The cover charge will go to music programs at public and private schools in Jefferson County and surrounding counties. Louisville Public Media is a sponsor of “Save the Music.”