The Impact of Lynchburg’s Amplify Music Program
By: Jeremy Angione | Photos By: Ashlee GlenTurning Beats Into Futures
Downtown Lynchburg has become a haven for artists of all types. It’s not just a home for the established artist, but a connecting point to educate and empower future artists as well.
On Jefferson Street, Music Is Forever, a nondescript music production studio, is revolutionizing youth music education with their emerging program, Amplify Your Lives (or Amplify, for short). Amplify is a 10-week program “designed to empower aspiring musicians and producers in Lynchburg, Virginia,” according to Amplify’s syllabus.
The program began to take shape years ago when co-founder and lead instructor Keith Thomas taught a similar course at Pellissippi State Community College.
“What if we distilled that down and made it suitable for young people in the community,” Thomas had ideated.
Two years ago, Thomas returned to Lynchburg to experience what he described as a “string of shootings and untimely deaths with young people,”
in his hometown.
“You just heard community members saying, ‘We have to do something. We have got to create more opportunities,’” Thomas said.
Despite the bleak catalyst that started the mission of Amplify, Thomas and his Music Is Forever partner and founder, Jordan Preston, started the program relatively quickly.
Thomas returned to Lynchburg in 2022, and with the help of IRON Lives, an established youth outreach nonprofit with the resources and expertise that Thomas and Preston needed, Amplify’s pilot program was launched just a year later in November 2023.
“I understand these days the importance of collaboration as well as the necessity of building community,” Preston said.
Thanks to pivotal partnerships with the Academy Center of the Arts, IRON Lives, and local churches, Amplify received much of the technology and financial support that would help get the program into motion.
“The community has rallied in support in a major way behind Amplify. We’ve received support in attendance, financial, and positive feedback that positively encourages and pushes us,” Preston added.
A brief look at the Amplify syllabus would clue you in to its collegiate roots. While the program is comprehensive, Amplify’s staff ensure that each lesson is fun and applicable to students’ everyday lives.
“As a musician who struggled with this lack of understanding or support from my communities growing up, I can’t express how life changing this experience and these resources—even just the simple exposure to the studio—could be for a young person who genuinely needs creative expression and music in their life to thrive,” instructor Shana Munson said.
Now in its third cohort, Amplify guides its 10 students through an introduction to several production programs and technologies, music theory, vocal production, and recording, culminating in a student-produced album release party.
Thomas recalls that for the first class of every cohort, students are mostly unengaged and distracted by their phones. But he claims that without fail, students are much more engaged in the second class as they learn to actually produce a musical piece.
“At the end of the class they all have a song, or something that is musical. They’re all hyped. Immediately, we’ve got ’em, from that point on,” Thomas said.
For many of the in-risk, at-risk, and underserved students, Amplify and its lessons become a lifeline to many out of reach resources such as technology, the arts, financial literacy, and even a hot meal.
“Amplify provides a space where they can explore their potential, develop new skills, and gain confidence in their abilities. The program has strengthened community ties by showing these youth that their voices and talents matter,” instructor Phinees Robert said.
The creative outlet for students cannot be understated. All of Amplify’s instructors agree that the transformation of their students’ abilities and confidence from week one to week 10 is nothing short of remarkable.
“What becomes interesting is when the young people’s real lives begin to manifest in the space. When their real challenges become exposed and they might want to write about it. Things can get heavy,” Thomas said.
Thomas and the entire Amplify team trained IRON Lives staff to learn how to better serve the emotional and mental needs that may be troubling some of their students. Despite the students’ level of musical knowledge, or the challenges they face in life, the Amplify team makes use of it all to shepherd them to tangible, creative results.
As Thomas searched for the right words to convey how Amplify teaches students intuitively, he rushed over to a piano across the room and sat on the bench. He began pressing keys to convey what most of us would understand as the cues for tension, joy, sadness, and other emotions.
“We use the language of feeling, as opposed to the traditional music theory. You’re actually teaching the application of passion,” Thomas said. “It’s a step-by-step process, where we are teaching the fundamentals of programs, the technology, the artistry of making a song, and the performance of it. All the while we’re interjecting how this applies to real life.”
According to both Thomas and Preston one of the main challenges that Amplify faces is its relative obscurity in the community.
“I don’t know if people realize what’s actually happening in this space. I think if more people knew what was happening, then we could get more community support,” Thomas said.
At the end of the 10-week cohort students hold an album release party where they perform their self-produced music live for friends and family.
Aside from the technical skills they learn, Amplify offers its graduating class financial compensation for the music they’ve produced. Their music can be found on Spotify by searching “Amplify Cohort #1” or “Amplify Cohort #2”.
Currently, Amplify is building out its partnerships in order to implement an apprenticeship program for students to find placements for their newly acquired skills.
“My hope for Amplify is that it continues to expand and eventually becomes a year-round after-school program in Lynchburg City Schools. I would love to see the program reach even more young people in the community and offer advanced opportunities, such as paid internships or partnerships with local businesses, to give them real-world experience,” Robert said.
