We had the good fortune of connecting with Donna Silber and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Donna, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

We were finally in a position to make this choice as we only had one child left in college. Chuck had always wanted to do something with music as he has been a musician since he was a toddler and with Donna’s business skills, Chuck’s business skills and Chuck’s music background they felt that School of Rock was the best fit. The program truly changes lives and we wanted to provide that for the Fort Collins and surrounding communities.

What should our readers know about your business?

What sets School of Rock apart from other music schools is that we teach our own curriculum called Song First, what this means is that we don’t spend a lot of time at the beginning teaching basics, we immediately teach students to play songs, this enables them to start playing immediately with their bands. Once we have students enjoying our program and being engaged that’s when we start challenging them more with theory and sight reading. We have our own patented method app where we assign “homework” for students to practice at home, this makes a huge difference in their advancement.

Starting the School of Rock business was a little challenging, we broke ground on our Fort Collins location on March 13th 2020 and if you recall the first lockdown orders were issued on March 14th 2020. Construction continued but we had no idea if we would even be able to open once the school was ready and how would that look. Luckily, the community was ready for us and we didn’t have any issues gaining students once we opened in August of 2020.

Our School of Rock community is supportive and we welcome students of all ages and backgrounds.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

If my best friend was visiting for a week, I would definitely take them to hike to Horsetooth and the falls and Estes Park. We would be sure to ride our bikes along the many trails around town. Restaurants we would go to would be Music City Hot Chicken, Blue Agave, Bad Daddy’s and Smok. We would be sure to visit Social as well as Waltzing Kangaroo for some delicious pies.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Fort Collins without a brewery tour, first would be Gilded Goat and Odell’s then we would be sure to visit New Belgium and many others.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a shout out to all of our incredible team at Fort Collins and soon to be Loveland – we have the most amazing team who we love and appreciate. From our Management team to our Admin Team to our Instructor Team, they are absolutely the best! I also want to thank all of the other Colorado Schools of Rock for their advice and mentorship.

Website: www.fortcollins.schoolofrock.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fortcollins.schoolofrock/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchoolofRockFortCollins/

Image Credits
Michael Emmanuelle Backstage Flash

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.