The Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma hosts School of Rock concerts for the Santa Rosa program.
with developmental disabilities. “Even if it's not perfect the way [a student] plays things, they’re contributing to the band and nobody is complaining about anything.” Lindner particularly likes how friendships can develop as kids play together in a band. “That's something that gives me a lot of joy in my work,” he says. Talent in Sonoma County is ‘insane’ Joshua Walden is the co-owner and general manager of the School of Rock Santa Rosa. He says the school was his husband Jake Walden’s idea. Jake was a full-time musician before retiring to raise a family with Joshua. When the couple’s twins were 4 years old, he wanted to get back into music and thought a music school would be a good way to do that. “We didn't necessarily know what we were getting ourselves into, but we decided to press on and follow it through,” Walden says. “Now six years later, we've been having the time of our lives running the School of Rock up here in Santa Rosa.” Walden says he likes the immediate name recognition that comes with owning a franchise school. “We could never have had the success we had without being a part of the franchise,” he says. “They really built something amazing and gave us the framework and the roadwork, while still letting us do a lot of things our own way,” Walden says. “They just have all the tools we need and the marketing we need to be successful.” “Whether you're a beginner or you have some experience, we put you with other people to form a complete band,” Walden says. He stresses the bands aren’t formed based on skill. “We don't put the most advanced players in a band with
each other because it is a community and everybody relies on helping each other. It's a really collaborative experience.” Walden says they like the performance-based approach for a lot of reasons, but an important one is that music is like a language the students are learning together. “When a kid's learning how to speak for the first time, they don't just do it by themselves, they do it in a group, they do it with us—they learn a lot quicker that way,” he says. “They enjoy it a lot more and building that community is really kind of amazing.” Their teachers are all active musicians. “Usually the reason they come to us is they want to be a part of the next generation and help inspire them and build that passion for music,” Walden says. Walden says it can be scary when kids first come to the school. “You walk into our school and you just hear all these kids doing their instruments all over the school and when you're a beginner, it's quite intimidating,” he says. “But you go into a band and because you're having so much fun, you're actually practicing at home, and before you know it, you know your first song way quicker than you normally would.” He says Sonoma County has a lot of incredibly talented kids. “It's a really rich music community in general,” Waldens says. “But immediately in our first year there was a really big competition [Center Stage, a talent showcase before record executives] among all the School of Rocks with Atlantic Records and two of our students were the final vocalists chosen for that.” Their students continue to win awards and make their way into the community with their music. “I'm telling you the talent here in Sonoma County is insane,” Walden says. “[After six years], we're definitely seeing that it's our students that are taking over the professional music community here. A lot of the really popular bands right now—like Gas Money and Ryan
42 NorthBaybiz
April 2025
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