HARMAN and Little Kids Rock Launch National Partnership to Expand and Modernize Music Education in U.S. Public Schools

HARMAN and Little Kids Rock CEOs kick off program in Brooklyn to
deliver music tech gear to students; additional donations in Dallas, Los
Angeles and Nashville to follow.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HARMAN,
the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and
enterprise markets, and Little
Kids Rock, a national music education nonprofit, announced a
partnership today to strengthen music education nationwide in inner-city
public schools nationwide by funding the development of a new music
technology curriculum developed by Little Kids Rock. To kick off the
official launch on October 1, Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman, President and
Chief Executive Officer of HARMAN International, will join David Wish,
Founder and CEO of Little Kids Rock, at Juan Morel Campos Secondary
School in Brooklyn, NY, to surprise students with a donation of music
gear in support of the school’s music program.

“Our goal at HARMAN is to inspire the next generation to realize their
possibilities through the power of music, technology and service and we
are proud and honored to be a part of establishing music education
opportunities for students across the nation and world,” said Dinesh
Paliwal, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of HARMAN
International Industries. “Our collaboration with Little Kids Rock will
make resources and technology a reality for young students to nurture
and reach their full potential.”

Today’s public schools are faced with budget cuts that have forced many
to close music programs, and schools in low-income communities are
disproportionately affected. In fact, the most recent Department of
Education survey found that, in 1999, 100 percent of school districts
with a majority of “free or reduced lunch” students had music programs,
but this decreased to 81 percent by 2012.

Little Kids Rock looks to tackle this challenge by providing free music
instruction, musical instruments and teacher training, to public schools
across the country. With HARMAN’s support, Little Kids Rock will hire a
HARMAN Technology Education Fellow to develop a brand new technology
curriculum for the Little Kids Rock network. This curriculum will be
used by the nearly 1,500 public school teachers who have been trained
and equipped by Little Kids Rock to run its innovative Modern Band
program in schools, which teach kids to play, compose and improvise the
popular music styles that are culturally relevant to them.

As part of their commitment to bringing music education to underserved
communities, HARMAN will also donate professional grade equipment from
its extensive portfolio of top brands to Juan Morel Campos Secondary
School, and to three additional schools across the United States in the
month of October. The students at these schools will benefit from
equipment including: AKG® microphones and headphones, DigiTech®
switching systems, Soundcraft® mixing boards and a JBL® portable AV
system.

“The world of music does not stand still; nor should the world of music
education,” said Little Kids Rock Founder and CEO, David Wish.
“Technology and music have merged rapidly over the past decade, and
thanks to HARMAN’s support, Little Kids Rock will soon be able to
educate students in things like electronic music production, sound
mixing, recording, and many other technological innovations that expand
when, where and how we make music.”

“It’s exciting to hear of the partnership between HARMAN and Little Kids
Rock. This partnership represents a unique opportunity for students,
teachers, academics and the music technology industry to collaborate on
modern programming for music making and learning,” said Alex Ruthman,
Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Technology, New York
University.

To celebrate the launch of HARMAN’s partnership with Little Kids Rock,
representatives from each organization, including Harman CEO Dinesh
Paliwal and Little Kids Rock CEO David Wish, visited the Juan Morel
Campos Secondary School in Brooklyn, NY this morning to deliver the
donated product and instruments. HARMAN will continue to support the
band program at Juan Morel Campos Secondary school throughout the year
providing opportunities to perform at the HARMAN New York Flagship store
on Madison Avenue and corporate functions.

About HARMAN

HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and
solutions for automakers, consumers and enterprises worldwide, including
connected car systems; audio and visual products, enterprise automation
solutions; and connected services. With leading brands including AKG®,
Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®,
HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues
where they perform around the world. More than 25 million automobiles on
the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems.
The Company’s software services power billions of mobile devices and
systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms,
from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of
approximately 27,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and
reported sales of $6.2 billion during the 12 months ended June 30, 2015.
The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol NYSE:HAR.

About Little Kids Rock

Little Kids Rock is a national nonprofit that is dedicated to unlocking
children’s inner music-makers by revitalizing music education
programming in public schools. The organization partners with school
districts to train public school teachers to run its innovative Modern
Band curriculum and donates all of the accompanying instruments and
resources necessary to teach popular music. Little Kids Rock started as
a schoolteacher’s vision to give his students access to music education
that is relevant to them while diminishing budgets for the arts made
that more and more difficult to do. What began as a single after-school
guitar class has since exploded into a national movement that is
bringing free, weekly music lessons to nearly 200,000 public school
children due to the efforts of nearly 1,200 teachers nationwide. To
date, Little Kids Rock has served more than 400,000 students. More info
at www.littlekidsrock.org

Contacts

Little Kids Rock
Keith Hejna, 973-746-8248 ext. 114
Communications
Officer
keith@littlekidsrock.org
or
HARMAN
Darrin
Shewchuk, 203-328-3834
Director, Corporate Communications
darrin.shewchuk@harman.com