Press Mentions

They’re talking about us! Take a look at our press and media mentions. For press and media inquiries, please contact us at gibsonmusicarts1@gmail.com.

Press Mentions

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Olney: Music School Serves as Cultural Beacon for Residents

By: Rovell S Vialva

Situated on the crowded commercial blocks of Olney dwells one of the last bastions of music education in the ... 

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Leslie Odom, Jr. Teams Up With Wells Fargo To Highlight Resilient Black Entrepreneurs That 'Made A Way'

By: Jasmine Browley

When Wells Fargo approached Leslie Odom, Jr. to help them raise awareness around their mission to support Black businesses, the Tony and Grammy Award-winning entertainer said he wasn’t sure exactly why they chose him to partner up with. However, he knew exactly why he wanted to team up with ...

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Wells Fargo, Leslie Odom, Jr. Celebrate Diverse Small Businesses in “We Made a Way” Short Film Series

Wells Fargo is collaborating with award-winning actor and singer Leslie Odom, Jr. to present the “We Made a Way” Summer Short Film Series, featuring four films that shine a spotlight on the resiliency of racially and ethnically diverse small business owners during the ...

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Helping Pennsylvania small business owners make a way during the pandemic

By: Wayne Thompson

The past 12 months have proven the resiliency and resolve of 30 million small businesses across the U.S. as they make a way to stay open day after day. Wells Fargo recognizes the importance of America’s small ...

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Composer Randy Gibson walked the trails of Tacony Creek Park and recorded his responses as a suite of songs. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Philly composer writes a series of jazz and blues songs inspired by Tacony Creek

By: Peter Crimmins

In the summer of 2019, composer Randy Gibson took a stroll through Philadelphia’s Tacony Creek Park with his wife, Wilhelmina. Although Gibson has been operating his own music school for 25 years nearby in Olney, he wasn’t familiar with the creek or the park until the Olney Culture Lab asked him to write music in response to ...

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Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr. on the Advice That Changed His Life: 'Not a Day Since Have I Felt Like I Was Waiting for My Phone to Ring'

By: Rose Maura Lorre

There’s a fantastic story Leslie Odom Jr. likes to tell (you may have seen him tell it on The Late Show) about how he learned what it really means to persevere. Roughly 10 years ago, he was thinking about quitting acting. When he sat down and shared his thoughts with his mentor, a well-known acting coach named Stuart K. Robinson, what Robinson said in reply shocked ...

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Music school remains North Philly staple thanks to Wells Fargo small business grant

By: Wells Fargo

Nestled on the bustling blocks of North Philadelphia – where SEPTA buses zip around, residents stroll the streets, and shoppers make their rounds – lies a diverse group of long-standing, family-owned ...

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Composer Randy Gibson walked the trails of Tacony Creek Park and recorded his responses as a suite of songs. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Philly composer writes a series of jazz and blues songs inspired by Tacony Creek

By: Peter Crimmins

In the summer of 2019, composer Randy Gibson took a stroll through Philadelphia’s Tacony Creek Park with his wife, Wilhelmina. Although Gibson has been operating his own music school for 25 years nearby in Olney, he wasn’t familiar with the creek or the park until the Olney Culture Lab asked him to write music in response to ...

Read More

Composer Randy Gibson walked the trails of Tacony Creek Park and recorded his responses as a suite of songs. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Philly composer writes a series of jazz and blues songs inspired by Tacony Creek

By: Peter Crimmins

In the summer of 2019, composer Randy Gibson took a stroll through Philadelphia’s Tacony Creek Park with his wife, Wilhelmina. Although Gibson has been operating his own music school for 25 years nearby in Olney, he wasn’t familiar with the creek or the park until the Olney Culture Lab asked him to write music in response to ...

Read More

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt  5th Street Business Corridor - Sean Tate, Animation Teacher Gibson School of Music and Arts Interview

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt 5th Street Business Corridor - Gibson Music School Student Interview

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt 5th Street Business Corridor - Wilhemina Gibson, Co-owner of Gibson School of Music and Arts Interview

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt 5th Street Business Corridor - Masha T. Smith Cello, Piano and Voice Instructor Gibson School of Music and Arts Interview

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt 5th Street Business Corridor - Gibson Music School Student Interview

Olney Embrace Project Story Quilt 5th Street Business Corridor - Paul Gordon Keyboard and Drum Instructor Gibson School of Music and Arts Interview

Video from Wellsfargo

A Philadelphia school continues to play music with Open for Business Fund grant

Music and arts school remains North Philly staple thanks to small business grant

Nestled on the bustling blocks of North Philadelphia – where SEPTA buses zip around, residents stroll the streets, and shoppers make their rounds – lies a diverse group of long-standing, family-owned businesses. One destination in particular, though, brings a vibrant atmosphere to the neighborhood, with people coming from all over the nation, lugging their instruments into the towering white building on North 5th Street.

As a conservatory, concert hall, and music retail store all in one, The Gibson School of Music and Arts is a generational staple of music education and tradition within the Olney community. Since opening in 1995, it has conducted hundreds of recitals and concerts, taught over 5,000 students, and continues to welcome passionate musicians, from adults to children as young as two years old.

But before the school evolved into a centerfold for music preservation, Gibson’s Founder and Artistic Director, Professor Randy J. Gibson, envisioned a site that would help reshape the struggling Olney area and provide an outlet to inspire children through the arts.

“If you’re coming from such an area that’s on the news every night, your chances are limited and everything you do must count at an early age,” says Gibson. “I knew these kids needed a chance.”

Gibson, who studied at Temple University, the University of the Arts, and the now-closed Combs College of Music, is a concert pianist, composer, and recording artist. With over 30 years of experience performing internationally, he has brought his passion and training to instruct a variety of genres, including classical, jazz, country, rock, and R&B. He’s also nurtured the talents of singer Jazmine Sullivan, keyboardist for The Roots Kamal Gray, and Grammy-award winning producer James Poyser.

Finding the means amid the pandemic 

Originally from Atlanta, Gibson has deeply embedded himself into the North Philadelphia community, working alongside the North 5th Street Revitalization Project. This past year, he also contributed to a special project commissioned by the Olney Culture Lab and Tookany/Tacony Frankford Watershed Partnership, a community engagement organization working to clean up the creek and make it an inviting space for locals.

Gibson jumped at the opportunity to highlight the community through his works and composed his seven-song album over the summer, Tacony Creek Suite, to help drum up attention for the creek. Behind the scenes, however, he and his wife Wilhelmina were battling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business and doing their best to keep it afloat.

Due to the statewide shutdown in March 2020, the Gibson School closed its doors for the first time in over two decades. The husband-and-wife duo were uncertain how they would pay for the school’s mortgage and utility bills, and most importantly, their staff.

“Our first thought was to help the teachers and staff to make sure they were okay,” says Gibson. “We were struggling, but my wife is good at keeping people grounded and she did a lot of research to find a way.”

Three months after the initial quarantine, the school was able to reopen with restrictions in June, so they quickly shifted gears to accommodate private lessons virtually by offering sessions through Zoom and uploading videos to YouTube. They also limited in-person lessons and condensed the size of group classes. Unfortunately, they experienced a decline in their student body and staff.

“We already had to downsize because the students didn’t come back,” recalls Wilhelmina, the school’s co-founder and executive director. “We had to conserve energy, so during the week we only used certain rooms and we only used one of the three buildings. Electricity and heat were a lot.”

Wilhelmina spent late nights applying to local and national grants in support of black-owned small businesses, in hopes that the funding could help them pay off debts and allow them to install CDC-regulated procedures and equipment for when the school could reopen. She also reconnected with old contacts, tapped into various organizations for assistance, and signed up for webinars to learn how to modernize and rebrand the business.

In December 2020, their prayers were answered. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a non-profit community development financial institution (CDFI) that supports small businesses, awarded the Gibsons with a $5,000 grant that they used to get the school back on track.

The LISC grant was made possible by Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund (OFBF) program, a roughly $420 million small business recovery effort to help small businesses in the U.S. recover and rebuild. The initiative, which launched in July 2020, focuses on providing funding to small business owners through nonprofits, which can then provide small business loans, technical assistance, and long-term recovery and resiliency programs for small business owners.

As of March 2021, the OFBF has donated more than $125 million in grants, helping protect more than 22,800 small businesses and 66,000 jobs in the Philadelphia area and nationwide, the majority of which are at diverse-owned small businesses.

For the Gibsons, the grant, allowed them to pay their staff and bills. They were also able to install plexiglass in the music store and offices, professionally sanitize all three sectors of the building, and purchase personal protective equipment and proper social distancing signage. To limit the spread of aerosols from instruments, the couple stocked up on instrument bell covers—a type of fabric mask that is placed on the open end of brass and woodwind instruments—and drum shields.

“[COVID-19] made you think out of the box and forced you to really look at your business and see what things you can do differently,” says Wilhelmina. “The grant was a huge blessing in helping us get to where we needed to be; we would be in so much debt without it.”

“With our neighbors and partners, LISC is proud to advance equitable economic recovery with a particular focus on increasing capital to those traditionally excluded. We remain grateful to Wells Fargo and the Open for Business Fund for helping us bridge the racial wealth gap and achieve our critical work,” said Andrew Frishkoff, LISC Philadelphia- Executive Director.

“Small businesses like Gibson School of Music are the fabric of the Philadelphia community, providing essential jobs and services in our neighborhoods, said David Miree, Head of Consumer and Small Business Banking Diverse Customer Segments at Wells Fargo. “Wells Fargo has a long history of helping small businesses, and when the pandemic struck, we knew we needed to do more to help keep their doors open. We’re proud this program is helping small business owners like Randy and Wilhelmina make a way.”

Despite the fact that the Gibson School is still recovering from the pandemic, Gibson and Wilhelmina are pushing forward and finding their own way to give back to those in Olney. The couple is currently collecting proceeds to start a scholarship fund for students at the school.

“Truth is, none of us want to go through the worst circumstances, but those circumstances are what challenge us and bring out the best in us,” says Gibson. “It was a very challenging year, but it brought out the best in me.”

Learn more about how Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund is helping small businesses in Philadelphia.

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The Gibson School of Music and Arts was founded in 1995 by Professor Randy J. Gibson. We offer music and arts lessons and classes, musicians for hire, space rentals, instrument sales, and more.

Contact Us

Address: 5425 N 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19120
Phone Number: (215) 924-7345
Fax Number: (215) 924-8890
Email Address: gibsonmusicarts1@gmail.com

Our Hours

Monday - 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Tuesday - 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Wednesday - 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Thursday - Closed

Friday - Closed

Saturday - 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Sunday - Closed