WHAT WE DO
Play It Forward enlists trained high school musicians to take the gift they’ve been given and “play it forward” — by volunteering as music teachers to underserved children.
Play It Forward instructors provide free music education to children in two underserved communities in New Jersey and one overseas.
Play It Forward also collects used music instruments for children who cannot afford them and raises money to fund scholarships in music education.
WHERE WE ARE
RED BANK, NEW JERSEY
Red Bank is home to a vibrant and historic music scene, having produced jazz legend Count Basie and others. But many local families face challenges. The city has a large population of immigrants, and more than 20 percent of Red Bank's children live below the poverty line.
Play It Forward operates free six-week courses in piano, vocals, songwriting, and guitar for 8-to-10-year olds in Red Bank, taught by music majors at Red Bank Regional High School's Visual & Performing Arts Academy.
Classroom space is provided by the historic Woman's Club in downtown Red Bank. Classes are operated with the support and partnership of Project Write Now, a community outreach program for underserved youth, and supervised by music instructor Mimi Cross.
ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park is famous as the home of the New Jersey music scene, having produced legends like Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. But the city is also home to many underserved families. Most of the city's children are minorities, and nearly half live below the poverty line.
Play It Forward has launched an internship program at Asbury Park's preeminent music school, the Lakehouse Music Academy, enlisting trained high school musicians to volunteer as teachers to younger children.
Play It Forward is also raising money to fund scholarships for the city's underserved youth to attend the Academy, through its support of the Asbury Park Music Foundation.
LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA
Play It Forward funds the music program at the Tongabezi Trust School in Livingstone, Zambia, where families typically earn only a few dollars per day.
Play It Forward provides funding for instruments and an instructor to teach piano, guitar, drums, and the miramba --an African version of the xylophone -- to more than 200 children from pre-school through the ninth grade.
In July 2025, Play It Forward will bring a shipment of new instruments to the school and conduct a special three-week course, leading up to a concert performance by the students.
OUR STORY
Play It Forward was founded by Sasha Perskie.
Sasha is a classically-trained pianist, a vocalist and guitarist with the Asbury Park-based band Elevator, and a singer-songwriter who records on Moto Records.
She is also the founder of Harmony Music Instruction, teaching private classes in piano, guitar, and vocals.
Sasha founded Play It Forward in 2022, after enrolling in the Visual & Performing Arts Academy (VPA) at Red Bank Regional High School (RBR), where she majors in piano and performs with the concert choir.
RBR has a diverse student population. More than half of the students are minorities and nearly a third are considered economically-disadvantaged. But those students are underrepresented within the VPA.
Sasha believes that this is due to the high cost of music education.
In 2022 Sasha proposed a way to ensure that the school's next generation of music majors will more closely represent the school community as a whole: by having the school's current music majors — the students at the VPA — teach underserved local children for free.
This was the idea behind Play It Forward: that young people who've received the gift of a music education should "play" that gift forward — to children who want to learn music but do not have the means.
The program is designed to benefit all involved.
Children from low-income families in Red Bank get the chance to learn music, and will be prepared to audition for the VPA when they reached high school.
The school moves closer to its goal of ensuring that all of its educational opportunities are available to all of its students, regardless of their backgrounds.
The VPA will become more diverse and will be able to draw students from a wider pool of talent.
And the VPA's music majors get job experience, credit for volunteer hours, and the chance to give back.
Play It Forward now holds after-school classes in six-week sessions, teaching children in Red Bank piano, vocals, songwriting, and guitar.
Money raised for the program helps pay for classroom space, instruments, and other overhead costs.
In 2023 Sasha expanded Play It Forward to Asbury Park by working with the renowned Lakehouse Music Academy, which draws some of the top young musicians from around Central New Jersey.
Sasha is working with the Academy to operate an internship program which enlists high school-aged musicians to volunteer as music teachers for younger students.
In addition, Play It Forward is raising money to help fund scholarships for underserved local children to study music at the Academy.
In 2024 Sasha expanded Play It Forward far beyond to New Jersey -- to the African nation of Zambia.
During a family trip to see Victoria Falls, Sasha and her family visited a very poor local village and toured its school. The children there greeted her family by singing Zambia's national anthem. They loved music, but their school had little funding for instruments or music instruction.
Play It Forward now funds the music program at the Tongabezi Trust School, raising money to buy instruments and pay for instruction.
In the summer of 2025 Sasha will return to Zambia to teach several courses in music at the school and prepare a summer concert by the children.
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MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION
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DONATE AN INSTRUMENT
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