{"id":2121242,"date":"2025-10-28T20:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2121242"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:29:10","slug":"music-will-2025-benefit-gala-photos-celebrities-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/music-will-2025-benefit-gala-photos-celebrities-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Will 2025 Benefit Gala: Photos, Celebrities, Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Music Will<\/a>, the largest nonprofit music education program in U.S. public schools, held its annual benefit gala at Gotham Hall in New York City, celebrating the power of music and those who champion it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wyclef Jean, Sara Bareilles, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jackson Browne<\/div>\n

This year\u2019s honorees included Wyclef Jean<\/a><\/strong> (Music Innovator Award), Sara Bareilles<\/strong> (Luminary Award), Jackson Browne<\/strong> (Legacy Award), and Kristin Chenoweth<\/strong> (Inspire Award). The evening was emceed by Grammy-nominated musician Divinity Roxx<\/strong> and music directed by Michael Bearden<\/strong>, best known for his work with Michael Jackson and the 2025 Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

The gala raised nearly $1 million<\/strong>, with donations matched by The Wildflower Foundation<\/strong>, doubling the impact to support music education in public schools. Funds will go toward free teacher training, instruments, and innovative classroom resources. Music Will\u2019s goal is to reach 11 million students annually<\/strong> over the next five years through its Music as a Second Language\u00ae<\/strong> pedagogy.<\/p>\n

Students from Ann Street School<\/strong> and Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy<\/strong> gave standout performances, including mashups of \u201cLas Locuras Mias\u201d and Selena\u2019s \u201cAmor Prohibido,\u201d along with \u201cSugar, We\u2019re Going Down\u201d and \u201cHips Don\u2019t Lie\u201d \u2014 a nod to honoree Wyclef Jean. One student from Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy shared:<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to build a life around sound and Dr. Sabbot helped me do that,\u201d referring to their music teacher.<\/p>\n

Music Will founder Dave Wish<\/strong> announced he will step down as Chief Vision Officer to join the organization\u2019s advisory committee, stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic Will is building a movement to democratize music education so it reflects the direct students it impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the evening, honorees performed songs both personally significant and dedicated to the students. Highlights included Sara Bareilles<\/strong> singing \u201cBrave,\u201d Kristin Chenoweth<\/strong> performing \u201cI Was Here,\u201d Jackson Browne<\/strong> with \u201cRunning on Empty,\u201d and Wyclef Jean<\/strong> delivering \u201cGone Till November\u201d and a six-language freestyle during his speech. The night closed with a group performance of Bob Marley\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cOne Love,\u201d featuring Wyclef, Kristin Chenoweth, Divinity Roxx, students, and staff.<\/p>\n

Additional awards and recognitions included the Visionary Award<\/strong> presented to Jerry Goldenson<\/strong>, President of KHS America<\/strong>, for his long-standing commitment to expanding access to music education through high-quality, affordable instruments.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wyclef Jean, Sara Bareilles, Michael Bearden, Kristin Chenoweth, Jackson Browne, Jonathan Shank, and Music Will students and faculty<\/div>\n

The benefit also featured a silent auction and paddle raise, with prizes such as signed guitars from the honorees, experiences with Kristin Chenoweth\u2019s Broadway show Queen of Versailles, and autographed items from Dolly Parton<\/strong>, Bon Jovi<\/strong>, and The B-52s<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Presented by the Hot Topic Foundation<\/strong> and produced by MBM Entertainment<\/strong>, the event was co-chaired by Jonathan Shank<\/strong> (Terrapin Station Entertainment) and Gregory Hall<\/strong> (Pimco).<\/p>\n

Music Will\u2019s past honorees include Josh Groban<\/strong>, Andra Day<\/strong>, Smokey Robinson<\/strong>, Elvis Costello<\/strong>, Idina Menzel<\/strong>, and Babyface<\/strong>, with performances and appearances by Lady Gaga<\/strong>, Bruce Springsteen<\/strong>, Trombone Shorty<\/strong>, Alice Cooper<\/strong>, and many more.<\/p>\n

With millions of students in the U.S. still lacking access to music education, Music Will continues its mission to bring music into the classroom \u2014 not only as a creative outlet but as a proven tool for academic success and personal growth.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source nysmusic.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music Will, the largest nonprofit music education program in U.S. public schools, held its annual benefit gala at Gotham Hall in New York City, celebrating the power of music and those who champion it. Wyclef Jean, Sara Bareilles, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jackson Browne This year\u2019s honorees included Wyclef Jean (Music Innovator Award), Sara Bareilles (Luminary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2121243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[352258,375181,402706,385059,369386],"class_list":["post-2121242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-jackson-browne","tag-kristin-chenoweth","tag-music-will","tag-sara-bareilles","tag-wyclef-jean"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Music-Will-2025-Benefit-Gala-Photos-Celebrities-Review.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2121242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2121244,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121242\/revisions\/2121244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2121242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2121242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2121242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}