A packed courtyard watching Imagine Music Rock Academy perform at Van Sessions

Imagine Music Rock Academy · Ogden, Utah

More than
music lessons.

Real bands. Real stages. A community that has spent more than a decade helping young people find their sound—and themselves.

Our story, 2015–today

EST. 2015

What happens here

“A student walks into a lesson room. Then one day, they walk onto a stage.”

Rock Academy was built on a simple belief: young musicians deserve more than exercises and recitals. They deserve bandmates. An audience. A reason to be brave. A place in the cultural life of their own city.

David Owen started the program with two bands and led its first year. Then Ben Gabrielsen walked into Imagine Music carrying a freshly printed résumé in a Kinko’s bag. David hired him on the spot.

Ben became an extraordinary guitar teacher, program leader, and friend. He took the reins, developed Rock Academy, and cared for it through every rehearsal, concert, and season of growth. Rock Academy is what it is today because Ben carried it forward.

David founded it.Ben built it forward.

Ogden Mayor’s Awards in the Arts

A community
made through music.

Ogden recognized Imagine Music for enriching the city through arts, education, and opportunity. This short film tells the story in the voices and places that made it possible.

Watch on YouTube

Ten years of becoming

From one room
to a city full of music.

Scroll through a few of the moments that shaped Rock Academy—and the students, families, teachers, and neighbors who shaped us.

2015

The first stage

The very first Imagine Music Rock Band Concert turned private lessons into something shared. Students stepped into the lights, families filled the room, and a new Ogden tradition began.

An Ogden summer audience gathers for Imagine Music students

2015–16

Music moved outside

The stages grew. Neighborhood concerts, parks, local businesses, and summer audiences gave students the rare chance to discover what happens when practice becomes connection.

A student recital at Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria

2016

Every kind of brave

Not every breakthrough looks loud. Sometimes it is one student, one song, and the courage to be heard. Recitals became a safe place to take that first enormous step.

2017

Ogden noticed

Imagine Music was voted Best Local Service Provider at the Indie Ogden Awards—recognition that the work happening inside the lesson rooms was reaching far beyond them.

“Woogie Bones is Ogden’s Kid Rock Band” · Standard-Examiner

2019

A story worth printing

The Standard-Examiner put our young musicians on the front page of its People section. Rock Academy had become part of the cultural story of Ogden.

2022

Opening the big stage

At the Ogden Amphitheater, Rock Academy students opened for the Ogden Chamber Orchestra. Young musicians stood beside seasoned performers and belonged there.

The 9th Rock Academy Harvest Moon Festival

2024

A festival tradition

Harvest Moon became one of the defining days of our year: bands, families, teachers, friends, and a city block full of people cheering for young artists becoming themselves.