Let Music Fill My World

A Musical Life For a Prosperous Future

Millions of students across the United States still lack equitable access to quality music education. While many schools are required to offer arts instruction, implementation is often inconsistent, underfunded, or limited in scope – particularly in rural communities, urban districts, and schools serving high concentrations of low-income students.

According to Save the Music Foundation, more than 4 million students in the U.S. do not have access to music education during the school day. Budget constraints, staffing shortages, and competing academic priorities have pushed music programs to the margins, despite overwhelming evidence that music education improves attendance, academic engagement, emotional well-being, and also builds critical skills such as creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.

This gap is about more than music. It is about opportunity. At a time when students face rising mental health challenges, chronic absenteeism, and increasing disconnection from school and community, music education remains one of the most effective – and underutilized – tools for engagement and growth.

Let Music Fill My World exists to help close that gap by raising awareness, celebrating the impact of music, and investing directly in the entities working to keep music education alive.

In 2023, Grammy-nominated artist John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting and Cayley Tull, President of the Tullman Family Office, founded Let Music Fill My World (LMFMW), a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to music education in communities where it is needed most. The initiative launched at Farragut Career Academy in Chicago, where Ondrasik collaborated with eight students to co-write an original song, *Let Music Fill My World*, drawing directly from the students’ lived experiences with music.

The students not only wrote the lyrics and recorded the track with professional support, but also titled the song *Let Music Fill My World*, a phrase that ultimately inspired the name and vision for the organization itself. What began as a creative collaboration has grown into a national initiative that celebrates why music matters while helping more students gain access to music education.

Established as an independent 501(c)(3) and fully funded by the Tullman Family Office, LMFMW advances its mission primarily through the Music Matters Challenge, an annual program that invites people across the country to share the impact music has had on their lives while supporting music educators, school music programs, and opportunities that expand access to music education.