WHO WE ARE
We've Got Rhythm is a 501(c)(3) youth development organization expanding access to music education and transformative musical experiences for young people.
To provide equitable access to music education, ensuring that every student, regardless of background, can develop their musical talent, creativity, and confidence.
A world where music is a universal right, not a privilege, and where every young person has the opportunity to learn, perform, and thrive.
By expanding access to music and meaningful cultural experiences, we seek to inspire young people to approach their personal, academic, and professional futures with greater confidence, ambition, and possibility.
WHY IT MATTERS
Music can change what a young person believes is possible for their life.
Access to music can change more than a young person's relationship with the arts. It can have a lasting influence on what they believe is possible for their own lives.
Learning an instrument, experiencing a live performance, meeting accomplished artists, and entering spaces they may never have imagined were open to them can foster confidence, curiosity, persistence, creativity, and a sense of belonging.
These experiences do more than inspire the next generation of professional musicians and lifelong music lovers. They can become formative moments that help young people recognize their potential and approach their futures with a greater sense of possibility.
Five principles that guide our work.
Access creates opportunity.
A young person's ability to experience music should not be determined by family income, geography, or circumstance.
Exposure expands possibility.
Encountering great musicians, performances, teachers, institutions, and new environments can broaden what young people imagine for their own lives.
Excellence can be learned.
Music gives young people opportunities to practice discipline, persistence, preparation, creativity, and the satisfaction of mastering difficult things.
Belonging matters.
Young people should know that concert halls, classrooms, stages, cultural institutions, and creative communities are places where they are welcome.
Music reaches beyond music.
Confidence, curiosity, resilience, collaboration, and a sense of possibility can carry into school, careers, relationships, and community life.
Stand with us for music education in our schools.
The people behind the mission.
Wycliffe Daniels Wilkinson
Wycliffe Daniels Wilkinson is the founder and president of We've Got Rhythm. Inspired in part by José Antonio Abreu's El Sistema, Wilkinson established WGR in 2012 with the belief that access to music can expand a young person's sense of what is possible and help equip them to contribute to their communities.
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Wilkinson brings extensive nonprofit leadership and development experience to this work. He has served as Chief Development Officer of La Salle Academy, Director of Development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County, and Associate Director of the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens, as well as in other nonprofit executive and board leadership positions.
Before entering nonprofit leadership, Wilkinson spent a decade working as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, including at Schering-Plough and Merck. His scientific training continues to inform his analytical and evidence-informed approach to leadership, education, and the arts.
Under his leadership, WGR has grown from an idea into a network of partners and volunteers expanding young people's access to instruments, educational opportunities, and performances in world-renowned cultural venues. He leads the organization's strategy, program development, partnerships, and community engagement.
Wilkinson believes that music education and meaningful musical experiences can nurture confidence, discipline, curiosity, and a lasting sense of belonging. His work brings educators, artists, cultural institutions, community organizations, families, and supporters together so that more young people can pursue excellence and see themselves as capable participants in spaces that may once have seemed beyond their reach.
Governance and stewardship.
Our volunteer leadership provides governance, fiduciary oversight, strategic guidance, and stewardship of We've Got Rhythm's mission and resources.
Dr. Sean Anderson
Product Lead, HyperLight
Dana Elmquist
Founder & CEO, Redcrest Partners
Dawn Laabs
Owner, Shokei Shodo
Dr. Ken Valenzano
Chef, Terra Momo Restaurant Group
Austen Vernon
Associate, Vernon & Ginsburg, LLP
Dr. Gretna Wilkinson
Editor-in-Chief, The RavensPerch Literary Magazine