Founded by Disan Kato · Mbarara, Uganda · since 2018

We teach music to children who would never otherwise touch an instrument.

Every week our teachers load keyboards, guitars, drums and a generator into a vehicle and drive out to schools around Mbarara. We set up, we teach, we pack up and come back the following week. The lessons are free.

See our fieldwork → Donate ↗

Pupils in school uniform practising on a row of keyboards in a classroom

Field log

This week on the road

One school, one day, every week. We choose schools that commit something of their own: a slot in the timetable, a teacher who stays in the room, a cupboard for materials.

Wed

Nyakyeera United Secondary School

Ntungamo

Different instruments, working towards a school band for internal and external performances.

19students

Thu

Open Skies School

Byanamira

Girls and boys of Primary 3 to 5, building players and choir leaders.

10pupils

Revival Junior School

Mbarara

Instrument lessons starting from September 2026.

New

As of September 2026How fieldwork works →

What we do

Music lessons that come to the children

A girl plays guitar in front of a banana plantation while her community listens

Fieldwork

Most places we reach have no instruments, no music room and often no electricity. That is why we go there.

The Vessels Band performing live: singers, guitar and keyboards

Impact

Some of our former students now earn a living as professional musicians. That is the point of everything we do.

Volunteer

Two or three times a year, musicians from abroad come to teach with our team for four weeks.

Disan Kato explaining the keyboard to young people — Disan Kato teaching keyboard in one of our communities.

Our founder

Disan Kato started it all

Orphaned at three, Disan Kato Tusiime was raised by strangers who saw him through school, and music gave him a future. He became a gospel musician known across Western Uganda and founded The Vessels Band.

In 2018 he founded Living Music Foundation to give children the chance music had given him. He still leads the work in Uganda, and he still drives out to teach.

Disan's story →Listen to his songs →

Watch