Music is First! Mission 

Creating Equity and Access to Music Education for All Young Children and  Communities.

Music IS First! provides resources for classroom teachers and parents to gain the confidence and skills they need to integrate music into the everyday. Whether it’s the use of our online lesson ideas, one on one consultations, site visits, teaching artist residencies, these resources can be tailored to schools, classroom, and community, because let’s be real, one size does not fit all in education. We believe every teacher, every school and every educational community is unique. As educators, you should be able to pick and choose the tools you need to foster success for all students. Below are all of the ways we have partnered with schools, districts and arts organizations to meet their individual needs in their exploration of music integration:

• Healdsburg Jazz Festival: Curated a week long outdoor music education village for students to explore

• SFUSD & OUSD: Modeling lessons on sites for teachers, professional development, collaborative curriculum design

• SFJAZZ: Writing curriculum, creating workbooks for students with social studies and standards

• Living Jazz: help work with TAs to notate curriculum with VAPA standards

• Created residencies for various schools throughout the larger Bay Area

At the heart of all these projects, we know this to be true:

1) Music is our first language.  We learn it as easy as walking and talking.  

2) Music is universal language that unifies and brings people together.

3) Music has shared concepts between disciplines that allow students to leverage learning.

4) You don't have to be 'professional' to incorporate music into your home or classroom. We are all musical and can teacher musical concepts at various levels of expertise.