'School of Rock'-influenced performance comes to Carrboro

Before he opened two visionary educational rock schools, inspired Jack Black’s character Dewey Finn in “School of Rock” and toured across the United States and beyond with his musical wunderkinds, Paul Green was a philosophy major at the University of Pennsylvania teaching music lessons in his apartment to pay his way through college. At that time, he wanted to go to law school. 

Today, the Paul Green Rock Academy is gearing up for their first tour after opening in the summer of 2013. Appropriately, the first show is in Philadelphia on July 24; from there, the tour heads south down the east coast, landing at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro July 29. 

For Green, a seasoned veteran of tour life, the trip may seem pretty standard; for his show band, which features many musicians who cannot yet vote, this string of concerts is the first chance to test their musical chops. What the kids lack in experience, Green more than makes up for in support — Green has utmost confidence that his students will not only survive the tour, but thrive on it.

“What I’m honestly most excited for is to see how good the kids can really get when they learn how to work and take this really seriously,” Green said.

“The kids get really good really fast when you have them play lots of shows and give them really good teachers. And the best tool I ever had for teaching music was putting kids on a bus and touring them around the country.”

And tour they have. Since Green founded the original School of Rock in the early 2000s, his students have graced the festival stages of Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, as well as landmark venues such as Carnegie Hall, CBGBs and Red Rocks. 

When presented with the opportunity to host the Rock Academy on their first tour, the ArtsCenter’s Operations Director Brad Porter said booking Green was a no-brainer. 

“It’s exciting for us to be able to present something like this event because it’s going to be a great show, and it’s also so tightly connected to educating children in what we believe is a viable art form,” Porter said.

“We present shows that are, in a way, very unique from shows you’d catch at (Local) 506 or the Cradle because we are more of a flexible arts space. And shows like this are fun because they fall in line with our mission to educate our surrounding community.”

Green’s operation has grown exponentially from teaching kids chords in his college apartment, but his career has never lost touch with its didactic drive. The Paul Green Rock Academy schools well over 100 students, not to mention the thousands of students that have been trained in the School of Rock franchise, as well as other rock schools that likely would not exist without Green’s vision. 

The reason and rhyme of Green’s success comes from his conflation of rock n’ roll and instruction — the resulting products are extremely talented, experienced musicians with a passion for their craft.

Olivia Casa, a 16-year-old singer and keyboardist coming to Carrboro next week, said the Green method is inimitable. 

“The performance aspect really helps because it teaches us how to really be musicians. You can take private lessons and do performances, but they’re a lot less free and expressive; it’s nothing like learning by playing with other people,” Casa said.

She and her fellow musicians will have their mettle tested when they embark on their loaded tour, playing 12 shows in just eight days, though Green believes the trip will teach his students more than just the rigors of tour life. 

“I believe these kids should learn to do service, and I think that playing music is a gift. So we’re playing a lot of local rec centers and places like Camp Joy, but we’re also playing rock clubs and outdoor events,” Green said.

“By the time they get to Carrboro, they should be seasoned veterans.”

arts@dailytarheel.com