{"id":5319,"date":"2025-09-19T23:40:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T23:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/john-mcbride-guitar-center-partner-blackbird-grant-program-1236071240\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T23:40:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T23:40:52","slug":"john-mcbride-guitar-center-partner-blackbird-grant-program-1236071240","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/john-mcbride-guitar-center-partner-blackbird-grant-program-1236071240\/","title":{"rendered":"John McBride & Guitar Center Music Foundation Partner to Launch Blackbird Student Grant Program: \u2018Music Can Improve Your Life \u2026 And the Whole\u00a0World\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe Guitar Center Music Foundation and Nashville engineering\/production icon John McBride have teamed up to launch the Blackbird Music Student monthly grant program. McBride owns Music City-based Blackbird Studio. Since opening its doors in 2002, the studio has hosted recording sessions for a host of music stars such as Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Jack Harlow.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcBride also serves as institutional director of The Blackbird Academy<\/a>. McBride and his wife, country star Martina McBride, launched the academy in 2013 which, as its website notes, is \u201cdedicated to advancing the quality of recording education through a hands-on, professional training curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Blackbird grant program\u2019s launch follows on the heels of the Guitar Center Music Foundation\u2019s fourth annual benefit gala (Sept. 11) during which McBride and Grammy-winning songwriting\/production duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were both honored. McBrider eceived the foundation\u2019s lifetime achievement award, presented by Martina and country legend Garth Brooks. McBride revealed the grant initiative\u2019s launch during his acceptance speech noting, \u201cMusic can improve your life \u2026 and the whole world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tJam & Lewis were honored with the Vanguard Award, presented by Nicole Avant, daughter of the pair\u2019s late mentor and music industry pioneer Clarence Avant. The foundation also honored firefighters and educators during the ceremony.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t(l-r) Garth Brooks, Herb Trawick, John McBride and Martina McBride seen at the 4th Annual Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on Thursday, September 11, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArnold Turner\/Eclipse Content<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAccording to the foundation, this year\u2019s gala doubled 2024\u2019s fundraising efforts. Proceeds raised will go toward the foundation\u2019s disaster relief program, helping musicians impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires by providing replacement instruments, gear and other recovery resources. Established earlier this year, the foundation\u2019s program has already supported 600 individual musicians.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to a silent auction, the gala staged a rousing musical salute to Jam & Lewis \u2014 under the direction of Adam Blackstone \u2014 which featured performances by Durand Bernarr, Eric Bellinger, Tina Campbell, Johnny Gill and Estelle. Jam and Lewis themselves closed out the evening inside Beverly Hills\u2019 Maybourne Hotel ballroom, joining forces with former bandmates Morris Day and The Time.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t(l-r) Nicole Avant, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis: seen at the 4th Annual Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on Thursday, September 11, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArnold Turner\/Eclipse Content<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m delighted by the overwhelming success of this year\u2019s gala,\u201d said Guitar Center Music Foundation chairman David Helfant in a statement. \u201cWe raised a very large amount of money to further the foundation\u2019s mission and programs. Special thanks to our honorees Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and John McBride, sponsors and everyone who attended. We look forward to utilizing the funds raised to continue to provide musical instruments and grants to musicians, schools, educators and hospitals for music education and music therapy. Music saves lives and the funds raised will help so many people across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded gala chair Herb Trawick, \u201cIt was a magical night with amazing music, musicians and music people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor information about the Blackbird Grant and other programs, visit the Guitar Center Foundation website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Guitar Center Music Foundation and Nashville engineering\/production icon John McBride have teamed up to launch the Blackbird Music Student monthly grant program. McBride owns Music City-based Blackbird Studio. Since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,274,108,96,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genre-country","category-genre-pop","category-genre-rb","category-music","category-rb-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}