News

Flea's Nonprofit Music School Teaches Kids Fundamentals

2:44 p.m. · November 10, 2009 · by Chris Bosman

It's not quite playing in a new band with Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich, but Flea is still doing some good in the world. Prompted by a visit to his old high school, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist started the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a nonprofit music school that teaches kids the basics of playing music.

The school has around 900 students, a quarter of which are on scholarship and attend for free, while those who can afford it pay $25 a lesson. The school has been subsisting thus far on money donated by the likes of Warner Brothers, Andy Summers of the Police and, in a rare show of non-douchebaggery, Metallica, who played one of the school's benefit concerts.

Kudos to you, Flea. As music programs increasingly get cut from public school budgets, kids will need places like this and programs like Save the Music to make sure that their musical talents are realized. [CNN]