Yamaha Guitars Donates 100 Guitars and Partners with Little Kids Rock

(L to R): Rick Young, Senior VP at Yamaha; Dave Wish, Founder and Executive Director at Little Kids Rock; Dennis Webster, Marketing Manager at Yamaha.

BUENA PARK, Calif. — To honor 10 years of giving the gift of music to school children across the United States, Yamaha Guitars has donated 100 new CS40II nylon string acoustic guitars to the Little Kids Rock non-profit organization. Yamaha Guitars made the donation announcement during the annual Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night event at Summer NAMM 2012.

"Little Kids Rock has done an amazing job spreading the joys and benefits of music in the nation's public schools," said Dennis Webster, marketing manager, Yamaha Guitars. "Yamaha is also committed to music education and active music making, so this partnership is a perfect pair."

Yamaha guitar artist Ladd Smith and friend of Yamaha, renowned guitarist Muriel Anderson, will deliver the guitars, which will help augment the efforts of Little Kids Rock to help further the efforts of the Metro Nashville Public Schools, which recently unveiled "Music Makes Us: The National Music Education Program." Introduced by Mayor Karl Dean, the program will overhaul the district's music program. In addition to maintaining more traditional aspects of music education, including band choir and orchestra, the curriculum will include songwriting and composition courses, rock band and hip-hop performance and technology-based production, including recording and DJ/Remixing in middle schools and high schools.

Founded in 2002, the non-profit Little Kids Rock has served more than 200,000 students at over 1,600 schools in 25 cities nationwide by donating instruments to underprivileged schools and providing free lessons. Little Kids Rock Honorary Board Members include B. B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Slash, Ziggy Marley, Joe Satriani and Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; email infostation@yamaha.com; or visit http://4wrd.it/usayamaha.