To call the School of Rock in Palm Beach Gardens and Lake Worth Beach a family affair would be accurate— a well-traveled family affair, in fact.

62-year-old keyboardist, vocalist and owner Rick Rothschild opened the North Palm Beach County school in Palm Beach Gardens in 2008. His South Palm Beach County school, in western Lake Worth, followed in 2011.

Rothschild’s son, 26-year-old singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Rothschild, is the musical director for both locations. He started as a 9-year-old student at school. The owner’s daughter, 21-year-old Sydney Rothschild, is also a 2021 School of Rock graduate who now handles social media, marketing and communications. All three have toured through the United States and beyond with what’s now a hugely successful international educational chain.

“When I was a kid, we toured all over the United States,” says Ben Rothschild. “We even went up to Canada to play with the kids from the School of Rock in Toronto, Ontario. As a student, touring was always what I most looked forward to doing.”

Espen Huff and Jack Rief are jamming out during rehearsals at the School of Rock. SYDNEY ROTHSCHILD / COURTESY PHOTOS
From June 26 through July 6, Rick and Ben Rothschild will make their third consecutive annual international trip. They are taking 17 House Band members to Chili to perform with fellow School of Rock students.

“We’ve played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, Graceland in Tennessee, and the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.,” says Rick Rothschild. “We were the first School of Rock to tour. Two years ago, we went to London, England and Ireland, playing with the School of Rock kids from Dublin. Last year, it was Barcelona and Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal, playing with students in all three cities. I believe there are six School of Rock locations in Chile, and we’ll play with two or three of them. And everywhere we go, they’re playing some of the same songs we are.”

The growth of School of Rock has been exponential since being founded by Paul Green in 1996. There are now more than 400 locations, including three in Palm Beach County (the third is in Boca Raton). The chain emphasizes getting students ready to perform songs of their choosing before a live audience, rather than teaching only the exacting classroom musical scales, theory and practice regimens of traditional schools. The teachers are skilled and come from many different musical backgrounds, including guitar and bass instructor Frank Axtell, who comes from Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The School of Rock has more than 400 locations, with three in Palm Beach County.
Songwriting programs were instituted four years ago to emphasize creativity and prospective studio recording. The school’s trademarked Method App brings the students’ ever-present cell phones into the mix beyond just reading lyrics while singing.

“We do the songwriting program sporadically,” says Rick Rothschild, “when we have enough students who want to do it. We’re constantly tweaking things, so we probably won’t do it this summer but will bring it back in the fall. And our Method App connects the students to the music theory behind the songs they’re learning to play. Between that, performing, and learning to sing and often play multiple instruments, since not everyone can be a lead guitarist, I feel like our students can go on to play live or record with anyone.”

 
The School of Rock, a nationwide chain, even has an Adult Program for musicians ages 18 and older. For younger students, Little Wing, Rookies, and Rock 101 programs span ages from preschool through 13, with occasional themed live shows.

The Performance and House Band programs put 8-to-18-year-old students in front of live audiences. And advanced students ages 12-17 can audition for the International School of Rock Allstars, a headlining touring act that includes Ben Rothschild.

Palm Beach County owner Rick Rothschild, a Spring Valley, New York native, worked with founder Green, who was the inspiration for actor Jack Black’s portrayal in the 2003 film “School of Rock.” Following the movie’s success, Green started the program in Philadelphia.

“I trained up there with Paul,” Rick Rothschild says. “If you ever met him, you’d realize he’s the exact character Jack Black was playing. I was in on the ground floor when we started franchising almost 20 years ago, and now here we are traveling through the world. I don’t think any of these kids have been to Chile before. Neither have I, and we have as many parents going there as we do students.”

At a rehearsal at the school’s Lake Worth theater, Assistant musical director and drum and keyboard instructor Chris Tomlinson, who studied music at Florida State University, ran House Band students through a series of cover songs.

“There are a lot of professional touring musicians who could never say they’ve been to Chile,” says Tomlinson, who previously worked at the School of Rock in Chicago. “These tours can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these kids.”

Vocalist/bassist/drummer Sam “Grey” Wolfe, vocalist/drummer Giancarlo Sanchez, guitarists Colby Mita and Ian Chatham, and vocalists/guitarists/bassists/ drummers Brandon Thomas and Callahan Fernandez are all scheduled to travel to Chile. The younger members, 14-yearold Chatham and 15-year-old Fernandez spent much of the two-hour rehearsal doing homework on an iPad, while the others tackled commercial rock warhorses like Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome To the Jungle” and “Black Magic Woman,” a hit for Santana.

Interesting deeper, darker cuts included Sanchez singing lead out front on Alice In Chains’ ominous “Would,” with Thomas taking his place behind the drum kit, accompanied by Mita on guitar and Fernandez on bass. On “Black the Sky,” a rocking dirge by King’s X, Wolfe’s lead singing and Cartagena’s backing vocals came down an octave to suit the song’s unorthodox, dropped tuning, and Mita added a creative guitar break.

“I went to Spain and Portugal last year, and it was amazing,” says Mita, who resembles White Stripes vocalist/guitarist Jack White and names Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Kurt Cobain as a few of his favorite players.

“I felt like an actual touring musician when I made that trip, and it was awesome; like I was a professional musician who does that all the time,” says Wolfe.

“Traveling is one of the most enriching things you can do, especially when you’re young,” says Sanchez, a multiple-pierced veteran of the previous two international trips. “For a lot of us, it’s as much about traveling with each other as it is playing.”

The other 11 students going to Chile are from the North Palm Beach school’s House Band: bassist Zachary Schnitzer (age 15); singer Carys Coleman, bassist/ guitarist/vocalist Emma Maciel, drummer/ vocalist Jack Rief, bassist Mia Wiebe, and vocalist/bassist Sage Duke (all 16), drummer/bassist Carson Hart and vocalist/keyboardist Micha Sachenheimer (both 17), and vocalist/guitarist/ violinist David Frear III, guitarist Espen Huff, and vocalist/guitarist Sawyer Rief (all 18).

“It’s so much work to book a tour like this,” says Ben Rothschild. “But it’s so much fun for the kids, and so rewarding for us, from a teaching perspective, to show them what the rest of the world looks like. For several of our students, it’ll be their last tour, since they essentially graduate from School of Rock when they either turn 18 or graduate high school.”

Next year’s international destination hasn’t been finalized, but Rick Rothschild offered a couple of hints.

“They’re opening School of Rock locations in Germany soon,” he says. “And School of Rock in Australia keeps asking us to come over.”

We’ll see where the music takes them! ¦