The co-founders of Keep Music Alive, whose mission is to promote the value of music. To help support their mission they have also founded Kids Music Day, which is coming up in a few weeks, on October 1st, AND they have founded Teach Music Week, which happens in March. They are also co-authors of a book series called, “88 Ways Music Can Change Your Life.” He is a lifelong musician and songwriter. She is a beginner percussionist and has recently started on the ukulele too.
(Vincent) "I basically am a lifetime songwriter and musician... I got bit by the pop music bug... and started playing with bands... got involved in different things as a songwriter, playing in bands, managing bands, putting on shows, writing custom songs for weddings and anniversaries for a period of time... and I worked in a recording studio for a while as well."
(Vincent) "When you jump from one angle to another angle to another angle, you never get really great at any one thing, and you don't make inroads that you might make if you had stayed with that one direction long enough."
(Joann) "Music played a very important part of my life because I had a very difficult childhood. My mother suffered from schizophrenia... we were low income at the time, and so we kind of stood out in a lot of ways, which made it difficult for me as a child. There was a lot of bullying that went on. Music - music is what I always turned to. No matter how bad I was feeling I could turn on the radio and it just seemed that when I turned on the radio there was a song waiting for me to help me."
(Joann) "I was actually his manager and I would promote his records to different radio stations across the country and managed to get some airplay for him."
(Vincent) "One day I saw an ad - it was probably on Facebook - about how everybody has a book inside them that they need to write. And honestly I never thought I would ever write a book on anything because I didn't consider myself an expert on anything."
(Joann) "We actually contacted over six thousand people around the world to get stories for the first book."
(Vincent) "It was in early 2015 I had this crazy idea that there should just be a week every year that musicians everywhere offer a friend or family member a free 30-minute lesson on whatever instrument that they play."
(Vincent) "What we do on Kids Music Day is we partner with... music schools, music stores, and other music organizations, and what they do is they hold some sort of event or promotion that either benefits or celebrates kids playing music."
(Joann) "The one celebrity that said yes made it so much easier for other celebrities to say yes, and that one particular celebrity was Julie Andrews."
(Joann) "We were very fortunate this past year for the fifth annual Kids Music Day to have an official spokesperson who created an amazing Kids Music Day performance video of his Disney songs, and that was Matthew Morrison from 'Glee' and Broadway."
(Vincent) "Pick what it is that you want to do and try really hard to stick with it and improve each year your craft and your networking, your connections, and that, along with persistence, persistence, persistence, will go a long ways to making progress in whatever it is you're trying to achieve."