The Donation Amounts To Over $35,000 In Instruments
A key advantage of being in school is a student’s access to the resources available through the institution. That can include athletic gear and facilities, woodshop, and even science labs.
Musical instruments can also be found at many schools.
However, for a new orchestra program at a high school in Knoxville, Tennessee, access to instruments was a significant hurdle…
Until Morgan Wallen came along, providing over $35,000 worth of instruments to the school.
About The Morgan Wallen Foundation’s Donation
In an e-mail sent to the principal of West High School in Knoxville, Kathleen Flaherty, executive director of the Morgan Wallen Foundation, said, “We support programs for youth in the areas of sports and music, and we are THRILLED that you have been selected to receive a donation of musical instruments as part of our Holiday 2025 Grant Program.”
This donation of $38,717 in instruments was announced by the Morgan Wallen Foundation on Nov. 13, 2025, and was approved by the Knox County Board of Education on Jan. 8, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Altogether, the donation included three double basses, seven cellos, seven violas and nine violins. These instruments were paid for by the Morgan Wallen Foundation, which takes $3 from each ticket sold to Morgan Wallen’s concerts to support athletic and music education efforts at schools. The instruments will be delivered by the the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation by March of this year.
Speaking to the Knoxville News Sentinel, the West High School orchestra director, Rachel Peña, said the donation “should set us up for a generation of music moving forward here at West to where I think the program could definitely keep going.”
Presently, the orchestra program at the school is in its first year, with 25 students enrolled. Future growth, she says, will be “sustained” by the Morgan Wallen Foundation’s donation, as she anticipates 40 to 50 students being enrolled this coming school year.
“We literally came from nothing,” Peña said in a Knox News video interview. “Each instrument equals a student that has access to music, right? I have many students … that come from disadvantaged communities.”
In addition to West High School, Peña is also the orchestra director at another Knoxville high school: Bearden High School.
Speaking on the potential for a serious orchestra revitalization in the region, Peña added:
“I think orchestra in East Tennessee historically is not as represented. We have a lot of band enthusiasts in East Tennessee as it makes sense, right, with UT and football and all that. But orchestra is more of like a smaller population, and so it’s exciting to have resources for it because I feel like our band programs are really robust, and so we need to do that work for the orchestra programs.”
More On The Morgan Wallen Foundation
Through his Morgan Wallen Foundation, country artist Morgan Wallen made several donations to area schools along the way during his 20-stop I’m The Problem Tour in 2025.
Notably, musical instruments were donated to two high schools in Houston, Texas, after he performed in the city.
His foundation also contributed $500,000 to a baseball field revitalization project in Nashville, Tennessee.
Learn more about the Morgan Wall Foundation at its website, here.