Meet Vincent James | Vincent James – Musician & Co-Founder Keep Music Alive

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

Hi Vincent, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The funny thing is we didn’t start out trying to create a business per se. We self-published a book called “88+ Ways Music Can Change Your” featuring inspirational music stories of how music impacted people’s lives…it’s basically a Chicken Soup for the Music Lovers Soul and Jack Canfield (co-founder of Chicken Soup series) eventually wrote the forward to “88 Ways Music”. We reached out to over 6000 musicians (and non-musicians) around the world to gather stories and published over 120 in the 1st edition in June 2015. In the process of gathering/reading/reviewing stories, we were inspired even further to create Teach Music Week in March 2015 as a way of encouraging musicians everywhere to offer a free lesson to friends and family to help start their own musical journey. By March 2016 we were inviting music schools and stores to celebrate Teach Music Week by offering a free lesson and class. Then in early 2016 we ran into a gal from California who founded Kids Yoga Day…immediately we thought there should be a Kids Music Day if there wasn’t already. We launched the 1st Annual Kids Music Day in October 2016 with locations celebrating with a variety of events and promotions that benefit and celebrate kids playing music…these range from musical instrument petting zoos, instrument donation drives, kids open mics, student performances in house or out in the community and more. As all these activities started to grow, Keep Music Alive did not become a formal non-profit business until October 2017. Then in late 2018 we began offering whats known as a Musical Instrument Petting Zoo at schools, libraries, festivals, literally anywhere families might be gathered. We bring guitars, ukuleles, keyboards and dozens of different types of percussion instruments for kids to interact with. It’s basically a “please touch museum” for musical instruments. Prior to the pandemic we had done about a dozen events, then did about half dozen in the fall of 2021. We’re currently on track to finish with at least 3 dozen events in 2022 and are aiming for 70-80 events next year. The overall thought process through all of this was simply: What can we do to help inspire more children (and adults) to reap the educational, therapeutic and social benefits of playing music.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been a life-long musician and songwriter – played trombone starting form 4 grade all the way through highschool in concert band, jazz band and marching band. I started piano around the area of 10 when my mom convinced my dad to bring a piano into the house so she could learn as an adult. I began teaching myself guitar a little later and played in rock bands in highschool and a wedding club band for a little while after highschool. My musical path has followed many directions including managing bands, work in and co-owing a recording studio, putting out my own CDs getting airplay nationally and a few national TV appearances (Jenny Jones/QVC) and even launched LoveSongs.com where i create custom love songs for weddings, anniversaries and other occasions for families around the world. Almost everything I do musically came to a stop in 2015 as we launched the “88 Ways Music Can Change Your Life” book series and began organically growing Keep Music Alive. While I have had some success at many things i have done musically, I believe our Keep Music Alive mission is my most important endeavor and will continue to focus on it until one day 10-20 years from now we feel confident in passing the reins on to a new generation.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We leave just 30 minutes outside Philadelphia so we would definitely take them to some of the interesting historical and fun cultural sites including the LIberty Bell, the Rocky statue and steps by the Art Museum, the LOVE sculpture and of course a Philly cheesesteak at Pats or Genos (or both) lol. Depending on their artistic tastes we would go see an orchestra performance at the Kimmel Center or one our favorite smaller performance venues including The Living Room or World Cafe Live.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout definitely needs to go to my wife Joann, who has helped me take my crazy music ideas (“88 Ways Music” book series, Keep Music Alive non-profit, Teach Music Week, Kids Music day and more) and made them successful through lots of hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears. What we have accomplished would not be even half as successful without all her efforts behind the scenes. Secondary shoutout goes to our mentors: Steve Harrison from Bradley Communications and Jack Canfield (Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and author our success bible The Success Principles)

Website: https://www.keepmusicalive.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepmusicaliveorg/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keepmusicalive/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/4keepmusicalive

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

Image Credits
Credit Keep Music Alive for any photos/images used