Third Street Music School Celebrates 125 Years of Music Lessons (Lewis: living in, teachers)

[Aeran]

I've never heard of this school in all my years of living in NYC. Cool to see this.

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs...-music-lessons

That's me jamming with students from the Third Street Music School Settlement's Rock Band Program on a Ramones Classic.

"We have students of all ages, adults too as recently, and they come here and they rock out and they learn songs with their teachers and their coaches and they get to present twice a year," said Valerie Lewis, Executive Director, Third Street Music School Settlement.

One of the many programs offered by the Third Street Music School Settlement founded in 1894 by Emilie Wagner, who offered music lessons and baths to immigrant children on the Lower East Side. Now located on 11th Street, the organization currently serves 5,000 students.

"I always like to share that our youngest student is nine months old and our eldest is 96," said Lewis.

The drummer is somewhere in the middle. These musicians are prepping for a concert paying tribute to another well-known musical spot downtown, CBGBs, the legendary music venue at 315 Bowery which closed down in 2006.

"It's sort of our job to educate these guys. You know, The Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Police, you know, someone's gotta teach them," said David Moreno, Chairperson, Guitar Department, Third Street Music School Settlement.

"I mean there's a lot of it where especially when you are in the position of trying to just put kids in the same band and get them to play songs, Ramones tunes, any kind of power chords kinda song like that is great for them to sorta cut their teeth on," said Paul Hemmings, Music Instructor, Third Street Music School Settlement.