Sales of D’Addario EXP Strings Raise Close to $30,000 for Music Education

Proceeds from D’Addario’s Fundraising Initiative to be presented to Little Kids Rock at NAMM in D’Addario’s Booth #4834 on January 19th at 2pm

January 19, 2006— Anaheim, CA (NAMM Show) - Little Kids Rock (LKR), an innovative non-profit program that provides free instruments and free music classes to children, announced today that J. D’Addario & Company raised nearly $30,000 for Little Kids Rock programming through its special product promotion. From July 1 to December 31, 2005, for every EXP coated acoustic, classical, or bass set of D’Addario’s EXP strings sold to domestic dealers D’Addario donated $.25 to Little Kids Rock. D’Addario executives will be presenting Little Kids Rock’s Executive Director, Dave Wish, with a check at NAMM at D’Addario’s booth #4834 located in Hall C on Thursday, January 19th at 2pm.

“This donation demonstrates D’Addario’s depth of commitment to music education,” said David Wish, Executive Director of Little Kids Rock. “They have not only provided substantial funding that will enable us to offer our program to more children but this initiative has also generated awareness about our program and our cause.”

For more information on D’Addario products, visit www.daddariostrings.com. More information on Little Kids Rock can be found at www.littlekidsrock.org.

About Little Kids Rock
Little Kids Rock believes that music is a critical component of first-rate education.
Many elementary schools have been stripped of their music programs. These cuts
have had a disproportionately large impact on children from low-income back-
grounds. Little Kids Rock restores music to its rightful place in the academic lives
of kids in our public schools by providing a rich music education program including
instrument instruction, free instruments and trained mentors. Founded by a single
elementary school teacher in 1996, Little Kids Rock is now serving more than 7,000 students in CA, NY, NJ and TN. Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Steve Vai, B.B. King, Jason Newsted, Dave Mason, Rick Springfield, Al Leiter and Les Paul sit on our Honorary Board of Directors and we are supported by friends Carlos Santana, Phish, Bob Weir and others. More information can be found at: www.littlekidsrock.org

About J. D’Addario & Company
J. D’Addario & Company, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets complete lines of strings for fretted and bowed musical instruments, drumheads, drum practice pads, and guitar and woodwind accessories under the proprietary brand names D’Addario, Evans Drumheads, Planet Waves, Rico, and HQ Percussion. The company also runs the popular Gbase.com online gear source. J. D’Addario products are marketed in approximately 120 countries.

Media Contact:
Allison Neves, PR Director
Little Kids Rock
415-948-1200
allison@littlekidsrock.org