Rami Mills, an Austintown High School sophomore, warms up on one of the guitars Gibson donated to the school for its Rock Band program.

AUSTINTOWN — Christmas came early to Austintown High Schools’ Rock Band classes.

Music instrument manufacturer Gibson Brands made a substantial donation of instruments and other gear to the school through its Gibson Gives program.

“I have a friend who works at Gibson’s Nashville branch,” said John Anthony, who teaches the two Rock Band classes, which meet at the very un-rock ‘n’ roll time of the first two periods of the school day. “When I got my job at Austintown last year, he encouraged me to apply for it. I applied last Christmas and was approved in the spring.”

The school received some amplifiers near the end of the last school year with word that more would be coming.

On Sept. 25, Austintown had a professional development day so the school building was closed.

“My phone starts ringing off the hook with an unknown number,” Anthony said. “They were calling me because a semitruck was pulling up to Austintown with donations. I knew something was coming eventually, but I didn’t know when.”

The shipment included electric guitars, electric basses and acoustic guitars as well as amplifiers, guitar pedals, cables, picks and guitar straps.

In an emailed statement, Gibson Gives Executive Director Denby Jarrett said the program was started in 2002 to make the world a better place through music by supporting musicians through education programs as well as music health and wellness initiatives.

“We typically give instruments directly to schools only in areas where we have a corporate location,” Jarrett wrote. “But we had been following John Anthony’s efforts at Austintown Fitch to do instrument drives with limited success and knew of his desire to build a guitar-centric program at the school. We knew we needed to help. The world needs more young people making music.

“It has been proven that music education produces better students providing better communication and listening skills, team building and leadership skills … and students in music education classes typically perform better academically. The bottom line — we strive to help people make better music!”

Gibson Gives has raised more than $4.5 million worldwide since its inception.

“A lot of my kids utilized instruments donated to the program,” Anthony said. “When I came in last year, we did an instrument drive, and we did the same thing again this year. The program has doubled in size, and a lot of these kids can’t afford to buy instruments (of their own). It was like Christmas day for these kids. I overheard a couple say things like, ‘This was the guitar I always wanted to play.'”

Sophomore Rami Mills warmed up at the start of class on a purple Ephiphone electric guitar that was one of the donated instruments.

“I absolutely love this one out of all the ones we got,” Mills said. “The color, the specs, everything. I knew we got a little last year and more was coming, but when we finally got all of this stuff, it was a huge surprise.”

Junior Ryan Rosser said, “It’s nice being able to pick up anything we want and just use it.”

Last year’s Rock Band students got to perform twice at Youngstown’s Westside Bowl. On a field trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, they got to play in “The Garage,” an area equipped with instruments that visitors can play there. Anthony, who is the lead guitar player of the band The Vindys, said he told his students they already were ahead of him — he didn’t play at the Rock Hall until he was 27.

On Friday students were rehearsing songs by acts ranging from Blondie to Soundgarden to Pixies.

“Now that we have enough instruments and all these amazing pieces of equipment, the goal is to push them and see how much we can get them out into the community playing,” Anthony said. “I’m hoping to tie them into something like Federal Frenzy (the downtown music festival staged every spring by Youngstown State University’s Penguin Productions). That would be the perfect thing, tying into YSU.

“A lot of colleges in the area, like YSU and Kent, are developing modern (music) programs. I’ve been in talks with professors from both of those who want to have their students observe our class because we’re really the only one who has something like this. In 10 years, everyone will have some sort of modern aspect to their school.”