When the pandemic sent America’s second-largest school district home, further hindering already-challenged music education, Fender and Los Angeles Unified School District jumped into action: creating a first-of-its-kind virtual music curriculum, complete with free instruments sent to the homes of 1,000 (then 5,000) students, and ending with a commencement ceremony reimagined as a star-studded live virtual concert. The event, called “Play for LA,” featured performances from Este Haim of HAIM, All Time Low, multi-genre superstar Miguel, Einer Bankz, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The event opened with a special commencement address and performance by LAUSD alum and chart-topping rapper Bryce Vine.

Fender Play Foundation (FPF) seeks to equip, educate and inspire young players through instrument donations, access to personalized instruction, and artist experiences.

When the pandemic sent 700,000 LAUSD students home, FPF quickly created a first-of-its-kind virtual music curriculum and sent 1000 new guitars, bass guitars, and ukuleles to students.

The inaugural semester could serve up to 1500 students. However, even though lessons and instruments were entirely free, only 1000 students signed up.

Because the program was so impactful for the first 1000 students, Fender and LAUSD were determined to expand enrollment in the 2020-21 school year. FPF and LAUSD wanted to celebrate their first 1000 participants in such a way that the community would rally behind the program, word would spread, and more students would enroll in this free home curriculum for the next semester of pandemic virtual school. The goal was simple, rally students, the artistic community, and LA!

Every star starts as a student, so we wanted to celebrate the first 1000 students like the rock stars that they are.

We created a commencement ceremony reimagined as a star-studded live virtual concert called “Play for LA.” This wouldn’t be another pandemic-related virtual concert; this would be a celebration of 1000 of the hardest-hit kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District who thrived in a six-week music curriculum despite their circumstances. We aimed to celebrate the kids while inspiring more kids to register next semester and rally the community behind the importance of music in schools, especially now.

To create buzz about the upcoming commencement ceremony and concert, Fender and LAUSD sent out exclusive LA-inspired and LA-artist-made concert merchandise, including posters and t-shirts, along with a video invite that featured their classmates and celebrity musicians that dropped into their virtual classrooms.

We believed that if we promoted arts education the way you promote the art itself we could increase interest in this program by potential students, their family and the LA community. So through the program, we could serve more students in the fall, and capture the interest of the larger community, and inspire advocacy from LA artists. It opened the door for more public awareness, the type of cultural relevance it needed to break through the COVID consciousness.

Fender Play Foundation and LAUSD sent 1000 new musical instruments directly to the homes of LA’s hardest-hit families, while simultaneously developing a six-week virtual curriculum with LAUSD music teachers and musicians from the Fender community.

To celebrate the inaugural Summer Music Program graduates, and inspire thousands more to enroll, we created a virtual commencement ceremony reimagined as a concert event called “Play For LA” with a special video and physical invitation from professional musicians, teasing even more special guests and surprises to come.

On the last day of instruction, “Play for LA” featured performances and appearances from Este Haim, All Time Low, Miguel, Einer Bankz, and Chris Martin of Coldplay.

And because no concert is complete without commemorative merchandise, we brought in notable Angeleno, Brian Roettinger, known for his work on album design, and local LA fashion brand Kids of Immigrants, to create posters and tour t-shirts for the students.

Despite limited funds to support the program itself and the celebration event with any paid media, our star-studded event reached far beyond the 1000 kids that enrolled in the initial program.

Bolstered by an organic Instagram post by surprise guest Chris Martin from Coldplay, the event site received over 96,000 hits the day of the event. What’s more, thousands of visitors watched at least half (14 minutes +) of the 28-minute event.

The event also caught the attention of ABC and NBC news affiliates who covered the program & virtual ceremony as part of their nightly news broadcasts resulting in over 127 pieces of broadcast pick up and more than 23,341,407 impressions.

As a result of the newfound interest from the community, Fall enrollment expanded to accommodate 2,000 students, and registration increased 100% and filled up within 90 minutes of the superintendent's invitation to register.