Kid Pan Alley

Kid Pan Alley’s mission is to inspire creativity, build confidence, and foster community among children of all ages through the group songwriting process. Founded in 1999, Kid Pan Alley has written over 2,800 songs with over 80,000 children in schools across the country, from Virginia to Hawai’i. Help us reach our goal of $50,000 to inspire creativity through songwriting to thousands more children around the country.

Your donations (through May 14th) will be matched by our board of directors and will be increased even more thanks to prizes and a bonus pool.

Join Kid Pan Alley for a free Livestream Benefit Concert on Tuesday, May 14th at 7pm EDT featuring Stanley Jordan & Howard Levy!

Click here for tickets to our upcoming show.  

Our professional teaching artists guide students to create an original song together, helping kids think and write creatively as they connect with history, culture, current events, and their own experiences. Students learn to express themselves artistically while respecting the diverse perspectives of their peers. Kid Pan Alley songs are a sophisticated and powerful world-view as seen through the eyes of the children.  Our songs have been recorded by artists like Amy Grant, Sissy Spacek, Delbert McClinton, Pinchas Zukerman, Cracker, Kix Brooks, and many others. We’ve released 6 studio albums and won numerous awards - including two Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, a WAMMIE, and even a Grammy nomination for one of our recordings.

 

During the onset of the Pandemic, Kid Pan Alley’s staff and Board moved quickly to transition our programs to the virtual world – offering online songwriting workshops free of charge to children whose schools had suddenly closed, and creating a virtual house concert series to support musicians whose gigs had been canceled. We wrote songs with seniors who were stuck at home and unable to visit with their families; we developed a pilot program for teens that used songwriting as a platform for dialogue; and we partnered with camps, libraries, and community arts organizations to bring Kid Pan Alley workshops to as many children as we could. Even as schools have reopened, KPA provides schools the opportunity to provide programs in person or through virtual formats.

During our new literacy residency program, where the children read a book and write a song about it, 4th graders at Pocahontas Elementary read about Maya Lin and the Vietnam Wall Memorial and were inspired to write a song in reflection of what they had read. The song is titled “A Place We Go To Remember." We recorded it with a string quartet featuring the multiple Grammy winner and Presidential Medal of the Arts recipient Pinchas Zukerman and the phenomenal cellist Amanda Forsyth. 

 

Here’s what 6x GRAMMY® Nominated singer/songwriter John McCutcheon and Billboard Hot 100™ charting singer/songwriter Steve Poltz have to say about Kid Pan Alley and the importance of songwriting with children.

 

“Kid Pan Alley is the quintessential program for helping kids to experience their creative power, their voice, and their own self-expression. This is the kind of experience that changes lives.”  Kathy Mattea, Grammy Award Winner

"One boy in my class jumped in feet first and was incredible. He often has difficulty expressing himself but this opened
up a new path for him."  Kathy Dowd, Jackson-Via Elementary, Charlottesville, VA

We are working with more schools than ever before -- writing songs both online and in-person. Our online house concerts are still going strong, featuring regional and national artists along with Kid Pan Alley hosts Paul and Cheryl Reisler.

Thanks to your generous gift today, we will be able to keep our programs going strong into the 2024-2025 school year and continue to give children of all ages the chance to share their stories and make their own music together.

We are so grateful for your support.