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Pleasanton residents can now fulfill their rockstar dreams with the city’s first-ever School of Rock, offering opportunities for both children picking up an instrument for the first time and adults aspiring to perform on stage.
Operated by now-Pleasanton residents Ben and Erin Levine, the school celebrated its ribbon-cutting ceremony last Saturday (July 12) to commemorate the success from its first couple of months being open. The school already has about 90 students enrolled and progressing in their musical journeys since its soft opening, the owners said.
“Seeing the satisfaction, the smiles on a kid’s face, where they can do something on their instrument this week that they couldn’t do two weeks ago … that sense of accomplishment is invaluable,” Ben Levine told the Weekly. “You can’t really put a price tag on kids learning how to be successful when they put their minds to it.”
Ben Levine, who grew up in a musical household with both parents being musicians, is a longtime bass player and educator with a master’s degree in music from University of Southern California. He spent decades performing, teaching and managing entertainment for several major venues in the Chicago area.
He said he always had an entrepreneurial bent, so when he booked a School of Rock show at one of the venues in Chicago almost two years ago and saw how successful the group of kids were during the show, he knew he had to be a part of it.
After talking with his wife, who saw the same aspirations with the school, the two decided to take the leap and open up their own School of Rock franchise.
And even though she isn’t a musician herself, Erin Levine said she wanted to support her husband not just because she is a fan of music, but also because she believes in the benefits of the school.
“Music, in my mind, has brought so much fun and positivity into our home and with our kids, so I know that was the kind of energy we really wanted to share with the School of Rock,” she said.
After looking around at other locations, the two eventually settled on opening their school in Pleasanton, which technically opened in April, because they saw how much the community valued the arts and their kids.
“We realized what a great community Pleasanton is, how much it had to offer and how kid-focused it was around here, and we realized that the best opportunity for us to do this business and make it really work would be here in Pleasanton,” Ben Levine said.
The school offers lessons for kids ages four to eight where they study music fundamentals and familiarize themselves with all types of instruments before they settle on one. Students eight years or older then begin private lessons and develop their skills before moving on to the performance portion of the program, which takes in students up to 18 years of age.
School of Rock is located at 3059 Hopyard Road, Suite D, near Ken Mercer Sports Park and Valley Avenue. Anyone older than 18 can also join the school’s adult band program, which Ben Levine said is made up of mostly parents who always wanted to play in a band.
