Meet Jennifer Moriarta | Owner, School of Rock Broomfield

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

Hi Jennifer, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
This question brings to mind a line from the movie when Dewey Finn (Jack Black) says “Dude, I service society by rocking OK?!” It’s a funny thing to say but it rings true on some level to what happens at a real School of Rock. Our teachers, students, and parents all rock, and the end result benefits all of us!

School of Rock is much more than a music school, and that’s largely due to the community created here. Students come to us simply looking for ‘guitar lessons’ or ‘drum lessons’ but they get so much more than that. Inside these walls exists a space for musicans of all ages to come together and enjoy their shared passion. It’s totally normal to see a 4th grader rocking out with a high school senior in one of our Performance Program bands, or a recent college graduate discussing the features of their new effects pedal with a recent retiree. Yes we create awesome musicians, but our programs go beyond learning an instrument. By playing in bands our students learn to work together as a team and communicate through music, and by performing on stage for an audience they also build tremendous self-confidence.

If you appreciate music, especially rock & roll, this is your place. One of our taglines is that we “inspire the world to rock on stage and in life” and we see that happen every day in the lesson room, in our rehearsal rooms, and of course on stage in our many entertaining performances.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
People are often surprised to learn School of Rock is a global franchise with nearly 300 locations around the world! Most locations are independently owned so in reality we’re just a small locally-owned business working hard to survive and make a difference in our community. Is it easy? Like all small businesses the answer is: it’s hard! Just like everyone else we’ve have to navigate the fallout from the pandemic, staffing challenges, inflation, the mental health crisis, competing programs, etc… the list goes on and the challenges never cease.

What keeps us going is a passion for music and the knowledge that what we do makes a difference in the lives of our students and their families! We’re not just ‘a place to take drum lessons’ (or guitar, bass, keys, or vocals) – we’re a community and a safe space and an outlet and an escape from the challenges of everyday life. We are totally aware that our students could learn music from other schools or independent instructors. They stick with us because we offer something different – namely the opportunity to connect with like-minded people who appreciate the magic of musical expression, particularly in the format of a roaring rock band. We’re grateful to the parents who trust us with their child’s music education, we’re psyched to offer performance oppportunities at legit music venues, we’re proud of our talented teachers who are not only great musicians but also great role models, and we’re excited to see the progress our students demonstrate month after month, show after show. Regardless of your age or skill level, there’s a place for you at School of Rock and we really mean it when we say we “inspire the world to rock on stage, and in life”.

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.
Live music is always on the agenda! Many weekends you can find me at a School of Rock show or enjoying some local bands. We’d see a show at Oriental Theater or Boulder Theater where we would hopefully run into lots of musician friends. If its summer we’ll head to Red Rocks — we’ll get some exercise running the steps in the morning and return later in the day for whatever fabulous band is playing. In Denver it’s always fun to walk the RiNo Arts district and take photos of the street art because there’s always something new to see and afterwards my kids can create an impressive stack of emply plates at Sushi-Rama.

I live near Boulder & have four kids so we’ll spend the rest of the week doing family-friendly activities. We’ll head up to Nederland for a hike, with a mandatory stop on the way home to ride the Carousel of Happiness. We’ll practice hitting balls at Topgolf at some point, take a tour of the CU Boulder campus (my oldest is a student there), and have some fun at Valmont Bike Park. I have to admit I’m a bit of a homebody so after all that activity we’ll probably head back to my house for a BBQ or Chinese take-out!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s hard not to overthink this question because the list quickly gets very long! If I have to narrow it down to one person the primary shoutout has to go to my husband Chao. He’s been there for 20 years of life adventures — that includes several children, multiple business ventures, a couple of cross-country moves, exciting trips, family challenges, physical challenges, financial ups and downs… and of course lots of boring conventional predictable moments as well. He’s equally happy to try something new as he is to chill for long periods of time. I consider myself very lucky to have connected with this person who comes from literally the other side of the world from where I was born and raised, so huge shout out to Chao for always being awesome!

Website: https://www.schoolofrock.com/locations/broomfield

Instagram: @schoolofrockbroomfield

Twitter: @SOR_Broomfield

Facebook: @schoolofrockbroomfield

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/school-of-rock-broomfield

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSf3ts51zqEcx6vZ_G8ljEg

Image Credits
For the headshot image, photo credit Jodi Goldstein / www.jodiellen.com