The NAMM Foundation Presents Grant to Program Encouraging People to Re-Learn Their Instruments

Kymberly Drake | October 26, 2009

Phil Rich, a Member of NAMM’s board of directors and vice president of Guitar Center, recently presented a grant check on behalf of the NAMM Foundation to Music Center Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County to support a program where people re-learn how to play musical instruments they have played in the past.

The program, called “Get Your Chops Back,” is exclusively for non-professional musicians. It offers lapsed players the opportunity to get reacquainted with the music they love, and to meet and play with other like-minded musicians in a “mistakes-allowed,” stress-free environment.

The check was presented during a “Get Your Chops Back” open rehearsal event in September at the Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring more than 100 participants making up a snare drum choir, jazz combo and flute choir.

Pictured left to right are Sandra Jordan, associate director of public affairs and government relations, NAMM; Michael Pagano, Member of the board of directors at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County; Phil Rich, Member of NAMM’s Board of Directors and vice president of Guitar Center; and Josephine Ramirez, vice president of the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.