This week at 583 Park Avenue, a few hundred people gathered to celebrate something that rarely makes headlines: music class.
Education Through Music, a nonprofit that embeds music programs into under-resourced New York City public schools, held its annual gala. The gala raised more money than it set out to. The organization, 35 years in existence, serves close to 18,000 students across 51 schools. Since 1991, ETM has logged more than 8 million hours of instructional training for Educators and students.
The voice of Spotify and curator at Lincoln Center, Xavier “X” Jernigan, served as the master of ceremony for the event
The Gala opened with a drum-line from Mount St. Ursula and set the tone as guests settled into their seats. The voice of Spotify and curator at Lincoln Center, Xavier “X” Jernigan, served as the master of ceremony for the event.
Guests took their seats and dinner began with a napoleon of grilled vegetables over spinach couscous, artichoke hearts, zucchini, yellow squash, roasted tomatoes, crisp parsnips, and a roasted pepper coulis. Douglass Hill Winery Chardonnay and Markstone Pinot Noir kept glasses filled throughout the evening.
The real draw wasn’t the food or live auction (which featured tickets to sold-out Ariana Grande and Noah Kahan concerts), it was the students. The choir from P.S. 206 brought the room to its feet. The Mount St. Ursula Rock Band, directed by former ETM Teacher of the Year Alfredo Hernandez, played a three-song set that reportedly shook the room. R&B trio FLO, the sensational new group signed to Republic Records, closed out the musical portion of the evening with their popular single, “Therapy At The Club.”
R&B trio FLO, performing their popular single, “Therapy At The Club”
Immediately performance, guests were served entrées of sliced tenderloin of beef, haricot vert and thyme-roasted fingerling potatoes, with a Chimichurri sauce. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options were available on request. Choice desserts of a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and classic crème brûlée topped with berries and whipped cream were offered to the guests.
ETM CEO Dr. Janice Weinman, in her fourth year running the organization, took to the stage and shared the data that showed students in ETM programs demonstrate better attendance, stronger focus, and improved academic performance across subjects. But she was more animated talking about something harder to measure: the confidence kids develop when they learn they can make something beautiful.
Three honorees were recognized during the evening. Jim Roppo, Chairman and CEO of Republic Records, didn’t just show up to accept an award, he committed to raising $500,000 for ETM through the gala and hit the target. He made the case that music education isn’t soft programming; it builds exactly the skills employers spend years trying to develop in adults.
2026 Education Through Music Gala Red Carpet honorary attendees
Peter Rosenthal, who leads the largest private lending firm in the country, got a laugh recounting a classroom visit where a student politely noted he wasn’t “normally a soprano.” The self-deprecating moment landed, but his point was earnest: access to that kind of experience shouldn’t depend on which zip code a child grows up in.
Deborah Romano, an executive at JLL, spoke about visiting a classroom herself and how seeing the program in person changed her understanding of what ETM actually does. She drew a line between the skills kids develop through music discipline, collaboration, creative problem-solving and the qualities that make people effective long after they’ve left school.
Jernigan returned to the microphone at the end of the night to announce the final numbers, the room already had a good sense of how things had gone.
ETM will head into the next school year with the funding to grow more schools, more teachers, more kids with instruments in their hands.
