Little Steven van Zandt is a world-famous performer, music producer and a foremost authority on contemporary and traditional rock and roll. A founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, he went on to become a successful solo artist, recording and performing with his band Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Soulfire, his first new album in over 15 years, was named one of the “Best Albums of 2017” by Rolling Stone. He also co-starred in all seven seasons of the acclaimed series The Sopranos, playing “Silvio Dante,” a character that he created. He starred in, scored and was executive producer for the award-winning Netflix series Lilyhammer. 

With a team of other music and filmmaking superstars, van Zandt founded TeachRock, supported by the Rock and Soul Forever Foundation, to provide a simultaneous solution to two escalating problems: music classes being cut from schools and a high school dropout epidemic. Believing that student engagement is a significant facet of the crisis, van Zandt conceived a truly interdisciplinary curriculum based around popular music. TeachRock is endorsed by the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Association for Music Education and the National Council for Geographic Education. 

In the fall of 2013, the foundation launched TeachRock.org, an online educational resource offered free-of-charge to the public, with new lesson plans and teaching resources added on a regular basis. More than 60,000 educators representing over 30,000 schools in all 50 U.S. states, England, Spain, Norway and elsewhere are registered with the website. TeachRock’s Partner School program includes a multiyear collaboration with the Connecticut State Department of Education; ongoing projects with New York City Department of Education; Los Angeles Unified School District; Chattanooga, TN, public schools; as well as with individual schools in Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee and several others.