School of rock: Pop music college in Woodstock

By

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, CA – JULY 27: Musician Allen Stone, guitar detail, performs onstage during SONOS Studio + PANDORA: An Evening with Allen Stone on July 27, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for Pandora)

WOODSTOCK, N.Y. — An organizer of the original Woodstock concert is behind a venture to establish a pop music college in the upstate New York town that lent its name to the 1969 music festival.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports Woodstock Music Lab purchased a former elementary school in Woodstock for $926,000. The school will be renovated to include rehearsal rooms, classrooms, recording studios and a music venue.

Professional musicians will teach workshops or two-year college-level courses. Classes are expected to begin in 2016.

Those involved in the venture include Michael Lang, producer of the Woodstock festivals, and Paul Green, founder of School of Rock. Green also runs the Rock Academy in Saugerties.

The 1969 three-day Woodstock concert took place in August in Bethel, 45 miles southwest of Woodstock.