A music fund from John Ondrasik — the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter of the band Five For Fighting — is handing out more than $300,000 in music education grants this year.
The Music Matters Challenge is set to return this year and will award its top prize of $300,000 to a full-time music teacher, organizers announced on Friday. The national competition is sponsored by Let Music Fill My World — a non-profit privately funded by the Tullman Family Office and Ondrasik.
“Music is the one true universal language. It gives voice to the voiceless, moves through unbreakable borders, and brings people together when words fail,” Ondrasik told People magazine in a statement on Friday.
“Imagine a world where every child has a music teacher. That is the goal of the music matters challenge, and let music fill my world. And what a world that would be.”
View this post on Instagram
Other prizes include a $25,000 school grant to support music programming, and a $10,000 cash prize for an individual winner that can be used toward the person’s music career.
The top prize of $300,000 will go toward funding the salary of a full-time music teacher for three years at a selected school.
Contestants are required to write a short narrative of up to 250 words explaining how music has positively influenced their lives. They must also showcase their talent by creating a two-minute or less rendition of the chorus of the song “Let Music Fill My World.”
The deadline for submission is May 30.
